Where The Lonely Ones Roam
by forgetyouinsiberia
Summary: Ezra's past is coming back to get him, and it's determined to take down everything in it's path. Ezria. Season 3 AU.
1. Here Comes The Lullaby

**A/N: **I went back and forth on this story for a few days, and I genuinely was **not **sure if it would get posted. Firstly because I already have so many other projects that I'm working on, but secondly (and more importantly) because this story is so much darker than anything else I've ever written. And I'm not going to lie – I love me a dark story. Literally. My Nook is filled with dark fan fiction right now (I guess I'm just not in the mood for a cute love story right now? *shrugs*) Anyhow, I've been put in the position of having to deal with my own personal issues with the subject matter that this story is based around for the second time in my life, and because of that, this story has come to light. I realize there are two kinds of people when it comes to abuse and people who have lived through it: Those who will read about such subject matter in fiction, and those who won't. **If you won't, LEAVE NOW. **If you will, by all means, continue.

**But keep in mind, this story will be gratuitously graphic. I will not apologize for it. **(Actually, I probably will at certain points because of the reviews I will inevitably get, but as you all know, I like to reply to reviews when thought is put into them or someone asks a question.) **BASICALLY: **if you're going to read, review, and then tell me it's too much, **Don't. Read. It. **Otherwise, continue.

_WHERE THE LONELY ONES ROAM_

_Chapter 1_

_Here Comes The Lullaby_

Ella Montgomery bounced on her heels as she watched the man who would likely become her son-in-law one day with trepidation. It seemed that the last few minutes had brought her a world of difference that she had never expected to see from this man. When she'd first met him a year ago, he seemed so far away from anyone who would react like he did to her previous questions.

It had all started the night before when she was looking on the internet out of natural curiosity, to see what she could find about Ezra's past. She knew that he'd graduated with honors from Hollis, but she'd been curious to know what kind of student he was, but when she found herself coming up with nothing upon searching the trusty internet, questions had begun to stir. And somehow, thirty-six hours later, she found herself standing in his tiny studio apartment, unsure of how to make her next move.

_Ella leaned against the couch in Ezra's apartment, watching him curiously. "Ezra, can I ask you something?"_

_He looked up at her and nodded. Ella pressed her lips together, well aware of the fact that he likely didn't have a clue what she was about to unleash on him. _

_"Why is your last name changed?" She asked. _

_His lips parted just in the slightest, and there was the smallest crease in his forehead as his eyes flashed with something. Fear? She wasn't sure. _

_"What makes you think my last name is changed?" He asked. _

_Ella crossed her arms under her chest loosely, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "I was reading up on your college experience last night," she admitted. "But it occurred to me that there was nothing from before your freshman year. And I mean **NOTHING**."_

_She watched as he looked down at the floor. His eyes were like a strobe light with strong emotion flashing through past his façade every few seconds. She could tell he was trying to hide it, but something inside of him was trying to surface. _

_"That didn't seem right to me, the salutatorian in his graduating class has no prior notation in the papers?" She could see his muscles tightening in his arms and neck. Whatever he was hiding was clearly a big deal. "And so I started doing some reading._

_"At first, I went as far as to believe that maybe you'd changed your name entirely, because Ezra Fitz didn't exist before 2006. And then I found some articles under a similar name."_

_"Stop," Ezra murmured quietly. "Don't go there."_

_Ella's brow furrowed as she stared at him, shaking her own head. "Why just change your last name?" She asked. "Unless you're not just hiding, but hiding in plain sight."_

_"Don't," Ezra said a bit louder, this time loud enough for her to hear it. _

_"Why are you living under a different name?" She asked. "Why leave New York for a little town like Rosewood?"_

_"Stop," he said firmly, looking up at her. There was raw emotion in his expression; a mixture of anger, pain, and something else she couldn't quite place. "I'd like for you to leave."_

_"Ezra-"_

_He walked over to her and gestured towards the door. "Please. Go."_

_He moved to walk over to the door and open it for her, but Ella caught his arm, and they stared each other down for several moments. She narrowed her eyes as she looked down, just a few inches down from his eyes and to the right. It was so light, she wouldn't have seen it if, on some level, she hadn't been looking for it. _

_A thin white scar just a few shades lighter than his skin. And for the briefest moment, she thought maybe it was from a seatbelt... Except that it was too straight, and thicker than a seatbelt. _

_She could hear his breathing quicken, and she wondered if Aria knew whatever it was that he didn't want her to know. She could see as she was looking at the scar that it wasn't something easily spotted. it ran under his hair. _

_"Ezra..." _

_She breathed nervously as she watched his eyes flash again with a quick range of emotions, like a paper unraveling when it wasn't supposed to. _

_Ella tilted her head to the side. "Is Aria safe?" _

_Ezra looked back up at her. She finally placed that emotion. Guilt and regret. "I...think so." _

_She wanted to lay into him about putting Aria in danger, but the mixture of the fear in his eyes combined with the fact that she didn't actually know what he was afraid of, made that impossible. _

_"Who did that to you?" She asked. _

_He turned away from her and walked across the room to the island in his kitchenette. He gripped the counter with one hand as the other ran down over his face. He turned and leaned against the island until he'd sunk to the floor with his back against the cabinets. There were tears pooling in his eyes that she could see he was trying desperately not to let fall. _

_Ella couldn't sit and watch him in that state. Her maternal instincts had her at his side seconds later. She reached out tentatively and placed her hand over his free one. The other rested over his mouth while his elbow was digging into his knee. He looked up at her as the tears finally fell from his eyes and began to trail down his face. _

"_Do you remember when you asked me if there was someone who would want to use the situation with me and Aria to hurt me?" He asked. _

_Ella nodded._

_"My...my d..." He gulped. Another trail of tears made their way down his face. "My father." _

_A knot quickly formed in Ella's throat as she looked him in the eyes. It was like she was seeing him for the first time. The pain, guilt, regret, suffering... She didn't even have to ask him what had happened. _

_"My mom divorced him when I was twelve, and when I turned eighteen, she had me legally change my name and pick a city. I came to Rosewood." He said. "He..." _

_Ella shook her head, pressing her lips together and biting down hard on them to keep herself from crying. _

_Ezra reached up to his neck and pulled hard on the tie he was wearing. "The belt..." The tie came loose, but he kept pulling at his neck as if something was constricting it. "I can't..." _

_Ella pushed him forward a few inches and rubbed her hand over his back. "Just breathe. You're having an anxiety attack." _

_"Can't," he said, His entire upper half began to tremble as his breathing quickened still. "Get it off." _

_Ella shifted on her knees and pulled the tie over his head and then made quick work of the buttons on his shirt until it was open. Ezra shoved the shirt off of him as fast as he could. It was as if it was burning him. _

_Nervously, Ella stood and crossed the apartment. she grabbed the Hollis sweater resting on the edge of his bed and then walked back over to Ezra as he moved to his feet. His breathing hadn't slowed, but it hadn't gotten any quicker, either. She handed him the sweater. He took it from her and pulled it on before pushing the sleeves up and zipping it halfway. _

_"So he... he choked you," she said. She wasn't sure if it was a question or observation. _

_"Breath control," Ezra said disgustedly, almost too soft for her to hear. _

_Ella's eyes widened as she looked back at him. Ezra looked up at her and realized she'd heard what he said. _

_"He-" _

_"I didn't mean- I- He didn't- I'm not..." He stammered over and over, trying to come up with the right way to tell her what she thought wasn't the case, but her expression told him that she knew he was lying. _

_"Ezra-" _

_"I cant," he stammered. "Aria can't know. I can't do this, I can't-" _

_Ella could see his wheels spinning again, and before she could think to do anything else, she pulled him to her and wrapped her arms tightly around him. By his rigid posture, she could tell he hadn't expected it, but he was quickly faltering against her. She could feel the wetness before his muscles loosened. Before his hands were fisting her jacket. Before gasps for air turned to sobs. Before her own tears began to fall. _

_-  
He takes my hand down the lonely road  
-_

Ella settled her bag on the couch as she sunk down onto it, rubbing her hand over her eyes. She was emotionally spent, and her children were going to be home in just a bit. Mike was seeing his therapist while Aria was with Spencer, Hanna, and Emily. She didn't even know where to start with Aria. Ezra had been adamant that she not know, and Ella didn't want to take that from him, but she didn't know if she could keep what she knew from her either.

She sat there until the front door opened and Aria came walking into the house. Ella looked up at her and smiled up at her. "Hey, sweetie. How'd studying go?"

Aria shrugged, dropping her bag onto the couch. "Okay, I guess. Emily's still really behind and Ezra rescheduled on her, so…" She paused, biting her bottom lip.

"What is it?" Ella asked.

Aria looked up at her and then shook her head. "Nothing. I mean…" She sighed. "He just seemed upset when I called to ask if he wanted to have dinner. He said he wasn't, but it didn't feel that way."

"I'm sure if something is wrong he'd tell you," she said. Aria nodded, but her expression made it clear that she wasn't quite sure.

"Why don't we get some food," Ella said, standing up. "And where is Mike?"

"With dad," Aria replied, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "Dad picked him up from his appointment and he said he'd probably stay the night."

"Okay," Ella replied. "Well lets go get some food. You can tell me all about your day," she offered.

Aria nodded, though Ella could see that she was bothered by Ezra's lack of interest in seeing her. It made her want to tell her daughter why, but she kept her thoughts to herself as she headed out of the house with Aria.

They made their way into town and had dinner at the grill, where Ella did her best to keep Aria and herself distracted with meaningless small talk. They ran into Ashley and Hanna, which seemed to distract Aria, until Hanna mentioned Caleb. After that, Aria's focus was back on Ezra and wondering about whatever was wrong with him.

After dinner, they returned home where Ella distracted herself with grading papers, and Aria did the same with her homework. They each blocked out the world to the best of their abilities, even with nagging thoughts in the back of their minds. Ella briefly considered calling Byron, but quickly dismissed the idea when she realized he would sooner say that Ezra's past would be just another reason for him to not be with Aria.

Eventually evening fell over the city, and Ella had no more work to focus on. She could hear Aria in her room as she moved about, getting ready for bed. She headed out into the hall and pushed Aria's door open a few inches as Aria was starting to snuggle under her blankets.

"You okay," Ella asked.

Aria shrugged. "I guess. I'm just gonna go to sleep and maybe things will be better in the morning."

Ella nodded. Aria reached up and pulled the light switch on her lamp, turning it off.

"Love you mom," Aria said. "Good night."

"Night, sweetie," Ella replied. She watched as Aria turned over in her bed, and then turned and walked back to her room. She pulled her cell phone free from her pocket as she did and stared at it for a few moments before she flipped it open and pushed the number 3 speed dial and lifted the phone to her ear. It rang a few times before the other end picked up.

"_Hey, mom."  
_

Ella smiled. "Hey, Mike. You doin' okay with dad?"

_"Yeah," _he replied back. _"There's boxes everywhere, but its good. What's up?"  
_

"Nothing," Ella said quickly. "Just wanted to check in."

"_Okay," _Mike replied, though he sounded less than convinced._ "I've got some homework to finish up, and then I'm heading to bed."_

"Alright," Ella replied. "I'll see you tomorrow. Love you."

_"Love you, mom," _Mike replied. _"Night."_

The call ended, and Ella stared at her phone for a moment longer before she settled it on the night stand and then changed out of her clothes into sweat pants and a loose t-shirt. She plugged her phone into the wall and then walked out of the room and headed down the stairs to kitchen. She looked around the room for a moment as the light brightened the formerly dark room, and then walked over to one of the cabinets and grabbed a bottle of Merlot and a wine glass. She filled it halfway and then settled the bottle on the counter. She took a drink from the glass and then set it down on the counter. She was about to take a second drink when a knock at the front door stopped her. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she walked across the house to the front door. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Ezra."

He stood in front of her shivering, wearing nothing more than a crimson v-neck t-shirt and the same black jeans he'd had on when she had been at his apartment earlier. He was soaked to the bone.

She yanked him inside the house and pulled him into the sitting room. There was a basket of towels lying on the couch. She moved quickly, more concerned for his health than anything else as she made him strip to his boxers and then draped a towel over his shoulders. She walked over to the coffee table a few feet away and opened a box. She pulled out a thermal shirt and red flannel pajama pants that belonged to Byron.

"Here," she said, offering them out. The look on Ezra's face made her chuckle. "It's what I've got, and something tells me that you won't fit in my sixteen year olds clothes."

Ezra took the clothes from her, still shivering as he stepped into the pants and then pulled the shirt over his soaked hair.

"Stay there," Ella told him as she headed into the kitchen. She grabbed her glass of wine and then walked into the hallway and opened the storage closet. She pulled out a blanket and walked back into the sitting room and set her glass down long enough to shake out the blanket. She handed it to Ezra and then grabbed the glass. She watched his eyes and raised her eyebrow just slightly at him. "You want some?"

Ezra shook his head. Ella sat down next to him, leaving a few inches between them.

"Is Aria here?" He asked.

Ella nodded. "She's asleep."

Ezra nodded, looking down at his shaking hands as he rubbed them together, trying to warm them. Ella grabbed them in her own and held them tightly, lifting them to blow warm air. Ezra watched her, but it was clear to them both that she was acting as a parent would.

"So what brought you here?" Ella asked as she lowered their hands, though she didn't release them.

Ezra stared down at the floor for a moment, only daring a half-second glance at her before his eyes dropped. "I…" He took a deep breath and gulped. "I went home to New York last October. It was when Aria and I were first trying to make things work, but Mona somehow found out about us, and I got paranoid. I told her we were over and went home. When…"

He paused, shaking his head as he pulled a hand free to reach up and scratch his temple. He looked up at Ella, looking her directly in the eyes. "He was there. I came back to Rosewood because he trashed my brother's apartment, because he knew I had been there. He was looking for me. He has been since."

Ella nodded. "So you're worried about Aria?"

Ezra shook his head, biting down oh his bottom lip until it started to bleed. Ella reached up and cupped his chin, making him look up at her. "Talk to me, Ezra. What happened?"

Ezra's eyes grew wide for a long moment as if he were recalling something, and then it was over. He looked back at Ella again. "He's a cop. He's got friends in all the wrong places, and when he found my mother, he told her he'd kill me if he found me."

He paused again, taking a deep breath. "When I came back to Rosewood, I didn't even know if I could stay. I mean, I did everything I needed to, to stay safe. Nothing here is in my name. Its all in my best friends. I made sure nothing was taken or out of place."

"Okay," Ella said. She couldn't help but sense that there was a 'but' coming.

Ezra's hands started trembling more in hers. She squeezed them tightly. He brushed his tongue over the line of blood created from splitting his lip. "Hardy was beat up earlier today. My mother said he's going to be okay, but all the information he had about my things were in a safe in his apartment. The safe was taken."

Ella gulped, taking several long, deep breaths before she spoke again. "Ezra… I need to know what you're… What he did. Is Aria in danger?"

Tears started to fill at the corners of his eyes. "Everyone I **love** is in danger. He'll hurt anyone who tries to get in his way, trying to get to me."

"Ezra, what did he do to you?" She asked again. "I know he hit you-"

The words tumbled out of his mouth so fast that they were both surprised by them. "He sexually abused me until my mother divorced him."

Time seemed to freeze as Ella and Ezra looked back and forth between each other. After a few moments, he started to pull his hands down, assuming he'd somehow made her sick at what he was telling her. Ella quickly tightened her grip on his hands, refusing to let him go.

"What can we do?" She asked.

" You can't-"

"Ezra!" Ella commanded. "I am **not **about to let a psycho come to town and torture you. As long as you are with my daughter, you are a PART of this family."

Ezra steeled himself at her comment. "He'll hurt her, Ella. He'll hurt her like he hurts me, and then he'll kill her. And you, and Byron, and Mike. You can't-"

"Last I checked, I was the parent," Ella countered. "So you'll say here. You can sleep in the guest room. We'll tell Aria in the morning."

At the mention of Aria's name, Ezra's expression changed swiftly to one of pain and shame. Ella shook her head, waiting until she got his attention again.

"You can't hide this from her, Ezra. She needs to know. It's not exactly something that would be easy to dismiss, given the current situation." Ella said.

Before Ezra could continue to argue with her, his phone began to ring in the pocket of his jeans. He reached down and grabbed them, pulling it free. He stared at the screen with a blank expression for a moment. It was an unlisted number.

Under normal circumstances, he would've just answered, given that his mother's number was unlisted, but he knew the chances of it being his father were high. He looked back up at Ella. "It's unlisted."

Ella grabbed the phone from him and slid the arrow across the screen before lifting it to her ear. "Hello?"

_"Who is this? Is this Aria?" _A low female voice came over the phone line.

"No, this is her mother," Ella replied. "Is this Dianne?"

"_Where is my son?" _The voice replied.

"Sitting right next to me," Ella replied coolly.

There was a brief pause, and then a quiet sigh of what Ella assumed was relief. _"Is he planning to stay there?" _

"Yes," Ella replied.

"_I need a different number to reach him at. He needs to lose his phone." _Dianne replied.

"Alright," Ella replied.

"_Might I speak with him?" _

Ella looked up at Ezra as she handed the phone to him. He took it from her tentatively before lifting it to his ear. "Mom?"

Ella watched as his brow knit while Dianne talked. For a moment she thought it was because he was getting upset again, but after a few seconds, she realized it was an entirely different emotion. Rage.

"How the hell is that going to help anything!?" He argued into the phone. "He's not stupid! He's a second generation cop who's worked in New York for **decades**! Being in Rosewood-" He stopped talking, presumably because she had cut him off. Still, his rage didn't waver. In fact, it seemed to grow, the longer he listened to her speak. "Right, because the best thing to do is leave Aria in a position that some psycho is going to kidnap her, or worse-"

Ella knew better than to let what he was saying scare her. She knew that he was purposely provoking any option that might get his mother to change her mind about whatever they were arguing about. Regardless of whether he skipped town or not, there was still a large chance that Ezra's father could turn up in town and try to get information from Aria.

A few moments later, he pulled his phone away from his ear, and Ella couldn't help but cringe as he threw it at the wall. The screen smashed and the casing fell apart, leaving pieces on the floor. As she opened her eyes again, she watched him curl his hands into fists while his chest heaved with heavy angered breaths, and she knew he was pissed.

She didn't move as she spoke to him in the calmest voice she could manage, not wanting to provoke him further. "Ezra, running away from Rosewood isn't going to help. Regardless of where you go, you don't have the means _or the funds _to erase who you are. At least here-"

"Here, I'm an open target for him to find and kill," he growled as he looked over at her. The glare in his eyes was one that could rival her own. Still, Ella wasn't daunted by his anger.

"No," she disagreed. "Here, you are surrounded by people who care about you. Here, you've got people willing to keep you safe."

He shook his head at her, biting his bottom lip again. It wasn't until blood ran over the top of his lip that Ella realized what he was doing, taking his rage out on himself. She walked over to him and grabbed him by his shoulders, shaking him a few times until he released his lip.

"You don't get it," he said, straining to speak past the knot that had built up in his throat. "He won't just kidnap Aria if he finds out about her. He'll make someone hurt her for answers. He'll hurt your entire family, her friends, my friends… Anyone who knows anything. Him beating up Hardy today was just the beginning of it all."

"So what?" Ella replied. "Do you realize the difference between staying here and running?"

"No one gets hurt if I leave," Ezra said.

Ella shook her head. "No. Because if you leave, you'd have to go tonight. Without a phone, without any credit cards, bank statements, or anything else of the sort. You'd have to leave in a different car, too, with different plates. Tell me, how far could you get with no money?"

"Trust fund," Ezra told her. "I'd empty it."

Ella shook her head again, and her diaphragm spasmed once like it would if she laughed, dismissing his answer. "So what? You get three thousand miles away some other middle-of-nowhere town? How do you know he won't find you there?" She paused for a moment as she watched his eyes drop, considering what she was saying. "What then? With no friends, no family… No one to protect you. You really think he'd have the mercy to kill you?"

Ezra gulped and his shoulders shook under her hands. His reaction was clear in its answer that death would not be on the list of things Ezra's father would grant him.

Once again, tears filled his eyes, and Ella could see that it was sinking in to him. He looked down at the floor. She stepped away long enough to grab a washcloth from the basket of clean clothes. She grabbed a bottle of water from the table and then poured some onto the cloth before lifting it to Ezra's face and gently dabbing at the blood on his lip. He winced as she did so.

"I always thought if I was safe about things I did, he'd never find me," he said quietly.

"Why isn't he in jail?" Ella asked. She grabbed one of his hands and placed the washcloth in it.

Ezra looked up at her, but a moment later, his eyes drifted beyond her, and she looked over her shoulder. Aria was standing at the base of the steps a few feet away. Her head was tilted to the left and her mouth agape.

"I can't…" She looked back and forth between Ella and Ezra repeatedly. "You'd do this to me?"

Ella's brow furrowed slightly in confusion before she realized she still had Ezra's hand in her right, and her left was on his forearm. She quickly yanked them away, which only furthered how terrible the situation looked.

"Aria-" She started.

"I didn't- I mean I wouldn't-" Ezra stammered. There was fear in his eyes, but to an outsider, it was there for different reasons.

"All this talk about how you love me, and you'd do anything for us to be together, and you're doing **this**? My **mother**?!" She said angrily.

"Aria, I would never do that," he said, still holding the cloth to his lip.

"Right," she said, nodding disbelievingly. "That's why you're wiping lipstick off your face."

Ezra dropped his hand and looked down at the cloth. A few moments later, blood ran over the side of his lip again and began to make a trail down his chin. "No."

Aria looked back and forth between Ella and Ezra again, utterly confused.

Ella sighed, shaking her head. "You need to tell her," Ella told him. "I'll…take care of the phone. Is there anything you want from your apartment? Anything that can't be replaced?"

Ezra looked up at her nervously. "There's box of journals and photo albums in the closet, and my degree from Hollis on my desk. My laptop has a few things on it, too." He paused for a moment.

"What about clothes?" Ella asked.

"Ezra shrugged. "Whatever is easy to grab. There's a t-shirt and a sweater from Hollis that I want, but otherwise…And a cookie monster on a mantle. Looks ready to be thrown away, but-"

"I'll get it," Ella said, with just the slightest hint that she could've laughed in her voice. "You should ask Aria about Pigtunia."

She walked over to where he'd thrown his phone and picked up the pieces before walking into the kitchen. She returned a moment later with her coat and keys and looked between Aria and Ezra for a moment. They both looked apprehensive to say anything to one another. "I'll be back."

She stood there for a moment longer before walking out of the room. The door closed a few moments later, and Aria and Ezra stayed where they were standing. She waited a few moments before finally moving towards him. Once she was within a few inches of him, she tentatively reached down and grabbed his hand, taking the washcloth from him. She lifted it to his chin and wiped up the trail of blood that had formed before pressing it to the inside of his lip. He winced under her touch just like he had Ella's, but didn't move away from her.

"So what are you supposed to tell me?" She asked quietly. "She punch you after you tried to kiss her?"

Even though he heard the words coming out of her mouth, the sarcasm in her voice was clear enough that he was aware that she didn't really believe that was the case. How she had realized what she walked in on wasn't what she originally thought, though, was beyond his understanding.

"No," he murmured quietly. He lifted his hand to adjust the cloth, brushing his hand against the inside of hers as he did so. Aria pulled her hand away slowly, pressing her lips together as she waited for him to speak. Ezra watched her and gulped again as he tried to keep his emotions level. He had no idea where to even begin with her and explain everything.

How could he tell her about what had happened in New York last year? About what had happened to him growing up? How was he even supposed to begin to make her understand why his father wasn't in jail?

"Ezra?" She said quietly. His name sounded foreign coming out of her mouth, even though he was looking right at her. He blinked, and several tears ran down his face from the corners of his eyes.

Worry filled over her face as she reached her free hand up to his cheek, touching him gently. His vision turned to the floor as his chin trembled. Aria gently brushed her thumb against his cheekbone.

"I…" He looked back up at her, but his vision was heavily blurred by the tears glassing over his eyes. His upper body shook with fear as he looked at her. He blinked involuntarily and several tears made quick paths down his face.

Any wavering thought Aria might've had left that what she'd walked in had any trace of infidelity in it was gone as she felt his hand start to tremble under her own, and her throat became tight watching him suffer when she didn't even know what was upsetting him. She'd only ever seen him upset once before, and it hadn't even been close to this.

_Aria opened her eyes and groaned softly as she looked around the room in front of her. She was aware that she wasn't in her own room, but it took a few seconds before she remembered that it was Ezra's bed she was in. He'd carried her over there after they'd started kissing at the counter a few hours earlier, and then proceeded to make love. _

_She reached her hand out to the other side of the bed, only to be met with the cool feeling of empty sheets. She snatched the t-shirt he'd laid at the end of the bed for her and pulled it over her head before pulling her hair free. The bathing suit she'd had on laid a few inches over on the bed. She retied both sides and then stepped into them as she moved off the bed. _

_Ezra was seated a few feet away on the couch with his back to her. She walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her, a surprised expression on his face. There were tears on his face, but they seemed to be drying up. _

_She sunk down on to his lap, wrapping her arm around his neck. "What's wrong?"_

_He shook his head at, forcing a half-smile. "Nothing."_

_"You sure?" She asked with a slight chuckle. "You're not exactly the kind of person to cry over nothing."_

_Ezra nodded. "I promise." He rested his hand on her thigh, quickly changing the subject. "The pool is open. Why don't we go for a swim?"_

_She stared at him for a moment longer before resolving that she wasn't going to get whatever was affecting him, out of him. "Alright." _


	2. It's Already Over And Done When You're

**A/N: **This story, as I said, is going to be rough. And tough. And entirely loaded with crap that is dark and messy. I'm going through hell right now, and this story is me literally vomiting my thoughts. Anyhow, if you can handle all of that…enjoy.

_Chapter 2  
It's Already Over And Done When You're Young_

Aria stared at the spot next to her with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. It was nearly 4 AM, and she was still awake while she watched Ezra next to her. After he'd woken up three times screaming, she'd refused to go back to sleep. She wasn't going to continue to be roused by her boyfriend screaming next to her, terrified by memories of his childhood, and what could happen in the recent future.

His hands were fisted tightly around the pillowcase under his head that he had pulled down in front of him, and while he wasn't screaming or crying yet, his muscles were taut and his body was rigid as he slept. She was careful as she uncrossed her arms and laid down on the bed next to him, beginning to rub slow and gentle circles on his back as he began to whimper. She kissed his cheek lightly as she slipped her hand under his t-shirt, continuing the slow motions.

"Shh," She whispered softy. "It's just a dream. It's not real."

He moved suddenly, and she pressed her back flat against the bed as he faced her, though still asleep. His arm rested across her side but it was only relaxed for a moment before the stiffness filled through his body again and he clenched the blanket tightly in his hand. Aria slipped her hand under the collar of his t-shirt and resumed rubbing his back as she leaned down and pressed her lips against his forehead. Tears ran slowly down her face as her free hand moved into his hair and rubbed his head comfortingly.

"_Do you remember when I told you my parents got divorced when I was twelve?" He asked her softy, his voice shaking. _

_Aria nodded, though she was more concerned with why he was so upset. "You said it threw you and your brother for a loop."_

_Ezra nodded, though it quickly turned to him shaking his head. "I lied." He bit his bottom lip, though it was for less than a second. The moment pain ran through his lip from the injury he'd inflicted on himself a few moments before, he released his teeth on it. "I knew why my parents were splitting up. My brother didn't."_

_"Okay…" Aria said nervously._

"_When my parents split up…" He stopped speaking and pressed his lips together, trying to muster the courage to tell her. His bottom lip began to bleed again and stung with the pressure applied, but still, he didn't say anything. _

"_Ezra?" _

_He looked up at her, but still made no move to say anything. _

"_Ezra!" She said more firmly. "You're making yourself bleed again."_

_He released the pressure on his bottom lip again as Aria grabbed a fresh cloth from the basket and wet it with what was left in the water bottle on the table before pressing it to his lip. Ezra took the cloth from her and brought it away from his lip a moment later, seeing the red liquid that soaked through the white cloth._

_Aria slipped her fingers between his in his free hand, though she wasn't sure if she was doing it for his support or hers. _

"_My father wasn't a good person," he told her quickly. "He's a cop, but he's…well, he's the kind of cop that gets involved in all the wrong cases. He's the kind of cop who would let someone back out onto the street when they really should be in jail." _

_Aria nodded. "Okay."  
_

_Ezra shook his head quickly. "That's not why they split up." _

_Her head dropped against her left shoulder and she smiled ruefully at him. "Are you going to tell me why they **did **split up, or just keep naming reasons why they didn't until I guess?"_

_Tears flooded Ezra's eyes and she quickly regretted the words she'd just said._

"_Ezra, I didn't mean-"_

_He cut her off as the trembling returned and his voice shook as he spoke. "My father abused me for years. My mother and my brother didn't know." He paused for a moment and gulped, looking down at the coffee table, though he wasn't so much looking **at **it, as he was recalling something. "My earliest memory is horrific."_

_"What do you mean your mom and brother didn't know?" Aria asked, tilting her head to try and get him to look at her. _

"_I **mean **that they didn't know." He said. "My mother knew he hit me, and that he would sometimes beat me with several weapons of choice, but she didn't know about…"_

_"Ezra?"_

_He glanced up at her and then back down at the table. _

"_Did he…." Her free hand flew up to her mouth as tears flooded her eyes. "Oh God. He- Did he- He-"_

_Ezra looked up at her, and by the expression in both their eyes, it was clear to Ezra she had figured out, and clear to Aria that she was right._

_His hands shook as he lifted her hand to the side of his neck where Ella had spotted the scar earlier that day. There barely even the slightest indent there, almost unnoticeable. "I told my mother after he did this with a belt."_

_"Is he in jail?" She asked, running her thumb gently against his jaw._

_Ezra shook his head. "For a lot of reasons. He had a lot of friends on the police force, and some of them knew. Some of them…" His chest heaved as several tears ran down his face. "He threatened to kill me and my brother in front of my mother if she tried to go to the police. He actually threatened a lot worse than that, but…" His eyes trailed around the room, looking anywhere but at Aria as he gulped. "He gave her the divorce she wanted, and she accused him of abuse, so she got sole custody. When I turned eighteen, I changed my last name and left home."_

_"Does he know how to find you?" Aria asked._

_Ezra shrugged. "Every bit of information there was on me was in Hardy's apartment in New York. It was broken into yesterday and he was beaten up. Everything about me that he had is gone." He looked Aria in the eyes for the first time since he'd started telling her everything. "Nothing was in my name. Every trace of Ezra Fitzgerald was wiped out after 2006. Last year, when I ran away to New York, I wasn't entirely lying when I told you that I was dealing with family issues. He found my mother, and trashed her place, and then told her that if he ever found me, he'd kill me. I wanted to run, but she told me to stay. She knew that if I left, it would raise suspicion, because I was hiding in plain sight."_

_"So what about now?" Aria asked._

_"Our mothers seem to think it's best if I stay here in Rosewood. They think I'll be safer if I'm around people who can 'protect me'." He explained. _

"_Are you going to?" She asked. "Stay, I mean."_

_"If I run, I could probably get far enough away," he said tentatively. "But I don't know how to live on the wrong side of the law, and I couldn't even begin to start, because if it got arrested even once, he'd find me within hours. He'd find a way to get me out of jail, and then I would probably never be heard from again."_

_"But what if he finds you here?" Aria asked._

_Ezra shrugged, tears running down his face as he did so. "He could do the same thing. Except then he might kill you, your friends, and your family before leaving me to a life of torture and misery at his own hands." _

Aria slid off her bed gently and quietly, grabbing her cell phone from the nightstand as she walked over to her door and then walked out of her room. She walked down the hall and then headed down into the sitting room and sat down on the couch. She pulled the blanket down from the side of it. It was the same blanket that Ezra had had wrapped around him earlier in the evening. His journals rested in a box beside the couch along with two bags filled with clothing, and his laptop bag.

She tapped on her screen to bring it up and then stared at the picture as tears ran down her face. It was from the night that they'd had dinner with her mother at the grill. They hadn't been able to show much affection while out for dinner, but Ezra had held her hand under the table, and just after they finished, Ella had taken a picture of them. Ezra had his arm wrapped around her and they were both smiling. She had a terrible feeling that she probably wasn't gong to see him that happy again for a long time, if ever. Not considering how things were going.

She thought about calling one of her friends, but what could she really say? She doubted Ezra wanted them to know. He hadn't even wanted her to know from the way that things seemed. It wasn't as if she could blame him either. If she had a deep, dark secret like that, she wouldn't exactly have put it up on the table to discuss either. She knew that things like that could carry a lot of painful side effects, and that it was a tough thing to talk about.

She chewed on her bottom lip as she sat there, unable to keep her mind from wandering back to a few hours earlier. She remembered how every time that she asked Ezra a tough question or there was something he didn't want to say, he split his lip again. It had already been starting to bruise on the outside of his lip when he went to bed, and likely in need of stitches.

Footsteps creaked upstairs and Aria quickly reached up and wiped the tears off her face. She laid her head against the back of the couch and closed her eyes, though she perked up her hearing, listening as the footsteps made their way through the house, down the steps, and into the sitting room.

"Aria?"

She opened her eyes sheepishly and looked up at Ella. "Hey."

Ella walked over to the other end of the couch and sat down on it. "Couldn't sleep either?"

Aria shrugged, sniffling. "I was for a little while. But he kept screaming, and…" Her voice trailed off as the knot in her throat cut her off and more tears rolled down her face. She reached up and wiped them away. She rested her elbows on her knees and ran her hands into her hair. "How could he hide something like that mom? How did…"

Ella moved down on the couch and hugged Aria, rubbing her hand up and down Aria's back, just Aria had been doing earlier for Ezra. The realization of this only further seemed to upset Aria.

"Sweetie, that's something very tough to live through. I'd be willing to bet that it was probably something he didn't want you to know about, **ever, **especially knowing his father was still out there and could find him in a moment's notice." Ella said.

On the heels of her words, Aria could hear him screaming upstairs. She dropped her head against her knees and dug her nails into her scalp as tears fell onto the blanket. It stopped when he ran out of breath, but started again a moment later. The process repeated several times until he was either too exhausted, or whatever pain was being inflicted on him stopped. In the quiet of the house though, Aria could hear him crying in his sleep, which only aided her own tears.

Eventually the sound died down, though whether it was because he was awake or had simply just stopped crying, neither of them knew. Still, in the midst of it all, Aria exhausted herself and Ella leaned her back against the couch long after she'd fallen asleep before making her way back up the stairs. She popped her head inside Aria's room, where Ezra was still asleep, curled up around a pillow pulled tightly to his chest once more, and his muscles were once again taut. She gently pulled the bedroom door shut, hoping that it would help Aria to at least sleep a little better if she wasn't hearing him as clearly.

She walked back to her own room and sat down on the bed, picking up her cell phone off the nightstand. The last call was from Ezra's mother, whom she'd called just before throwing Ezra's phone over the same cliff Mona had fallen over when she tried to kill Spencer. It had fallen so far down that she had barely heard it crash. She had given Dianne her own cell phone number with the promise that Ezra would have a new phone in the morning. Ella was planning to take a personal day, and after the evening's events, she was planning to let Aria do the same. There wasn't any way she was going to wake her daughter up in ninety minutes and tell her that she had to go to school.

She tapped the number apprehensively on her phone screen before lifting it to her ear. It only rang three times before the other end picked up.

"_Hello?" _

"Dianne?" Ella asked. "It's Ella again. We need to talk."

_-  
When all you know seems far away and everything is temporary  
__Rest your head, I'm permanent  
-_

Ezra awoke a few hours later in a cold sweat. The sky outside the window was a dark grey, and try as it might, the sun wasn't having any luck peaking through the clouds. He was aware that Aria wasn't next to him, but with the way his head was throbbing and his stuffed nose, he wondered if that wasn't a good thing. There was dried blood coating most of his bottom lip, and the taste made his stomach churn.

He pushed the blankets off of himself and walked out of the room, yawning as he made his way down the hallway to the bathroom. The door was open and the only light came from the small window above the shower. The scenery was no different; the sun was poorly attempting to peak through, and making no progress. He shut the door behind him and proceeded to use the facilities before he washed his hands. He attempted to blow his nose, but it only seemed to worsen the issue. He was barely able to manage getting the blood off his lip without causing himself to bleed again. With a tissue in hand, he made his way down the rest of the hallway and then walked down the steps to the sitting room. Aria was still asleep on the couch.

His brow furrowed as he looked up into the kitchen, spotting Ella and a familiar head of dark hair. He walked into the kitchen behind the woman Ella was talking to, catching the tail-end of what they must have been talking about.

"-stopped screaming in his sleep some time before graduation. Probably because he was leaving New York."

"Mom?"

The woman turned in her seat and smiled at Ezra. "Hey kiddo."

Dianne Fitzgerald was the picture of old New York money to a tee. A caramel colored fur coat rested nearby on a chair, and her chestnut coloured hair was twisted up into a clip. She was wearing burgundy sweater with a swoop neck, and a pair of dark blue jeans. She wore very little makeup, but the way she carried herself, from the clothes she wore to the way she spoke to you, made it clear where her place was in society. Though no one knew it, Ezra came from the kind of money that could buy a person their own island, if they so chose to want one. Even in the struggling economy, his family wanted for nothing. They worried for nothing. There was more than enough money to go around, and then some. They were the kind of people who worked for something to do, rather than because they actually needed the money.

She had the same facial structure as her son and the same curly hair, but otherwise, there was very little in similarity.

Ezra was tentative to accept the hug his mother offered him a few moments later, and he only let her hold him for a second or two before dropping his arms, signaling that he wanted to be released.

"Sit," she told him a moment later. "Let me take a look at that lip."

Ezra sat on the stool she'd been on a moment later, and spotted the bag he knew well to carry her items from the hospital, liker her stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. She opened it and pulled a pair of gloves on before gently pulling the corners of his mouth. She grimaced slightly as the wound became visible.

"Something tells me you fought them on going to the hospital," Dianne said as she removed her gloves a moment later and began to remove things from her bag.

"He downright refused," Ella replied as she sipped from her coffee mug. "In fact, I think his exact words were that if we took him to the hospital, he'd refuse to let anyone go back with him, and he'd run once he was released."

Dianne smiled ruefully at Ezra as she finished pulling things out of her bag and began to arrange them on the counter. "Typical of you to say something like that. Under any other circumstance, I'd say you **should **go to the hospital, but the last thing we need is a paper trail for your-"

"Sperm donor?" Ezra offered up.

Dianna chuckled and nodded. "Yes. Sure. The last thing we need is for him to have something to follow."

"How did you get here?" Ezra asked. "I thought you were sure he'd follow you?"

Dianne smirked at him. "**You **may not be able to function on the wrong side of the law, but I've still got friends in high places willing to help me out. Friends your father wouldn't even think to go to."

"The lieutenant governor?" Ezra asked.

Dianne continued to smile at him. "You know me so well."

"Excuse me for cutting in here," Ella said. "But what happened when you went back to New York back in April? It's been bugging me since last night."

Ezra and Dianne both looked over at Ella as Dianne wiped a moist cloth coated in some kind of antibacterial against the inside of Ezra's lip.

"I would've had him stay if Michael hadn't been lurking. I moved last winter, but he knew how to find me, and because of that, I met Ezra at the Hyatt under Hardy's name. He told me about losing his job, and I opened his trust fund so that he could manage." Dianne explained. "It was supposed to be closed until he was 25. But, you know…Connections. Anyhow, I told him to come back Rosewood and to keep out of trouble. If I'd known that trouble included a teenage girlfriend, there would've been a lecture on that," she said sternly, glaring at Ezra.

"Those two have spent the last six months trying to make it clear that their relationship wasn't intended," Ella said. It was clear that it wasn't the first time she'd tried to make Dianne aware of that.

"I didn't know she was sixteen when I met her," Ezra muttered, even though his mother had a firm hold on his bottom lip. He winced as she injected lidocaine into his lip.

"Regardless," she said, settling the small syringe on the sterile field she'd set up on the island. "If someone had found out about your relationship and gone to the police? It would have been so easy for Michael to find you, and then what?"

Ezra huffed through his nose and looked up at the ceiling. Ella stared down into her mug while Dianne applied several stitches to his lip, before she placed a light layer of gauze over the wound, that would stick to the inside of his mouth.

"That should hold for a few days, and then when its healed, the stitches should dissolve," she explained. "**NO** biting absolutely whatsoever! If that gets split open, I'll take you to the hospital myself and have your mouth wired shut until it heals."

Ezra chuckled, even though he knew she was entirely serious. She went about cleaning up the counter up and then disposed of the things she'd used inside a medical waste bag and then threw it into the trash.

"I'm going to head over to the high school and pick up a few things for Aria," Ella said after a moment. "Can I get either of you two anything while I'm gone?"

"Ezra's still in need of a new phone," Dianne said. She grabbed her purse off the table and grabbed her wallet before pulling out several large bills. "That should cover it. When you get back, I'll head over to one of the hotels."

"You're not staying here?" Ezra asked her.

Dianne shook her head. "It wouldn't be wise. If your father found out, he could easily find you. As it is, he may _already _be in Rosewood, and that's only going to make things harder. But Hardy will be in town sometime today, if he isn't already. And is Jaclyn-"

"Jackie and I don't speak," Ezra said quickly. "Anyway, she's transferred up to Penn-U."

"Alright," Dianne said. "Is there anyone else here in town you trust enough to confide in?"

Ezra shook his head. "I won't put anyone else at risk for this."

_-  
Take away this darkness in the air  
__The black flames are everywhere  
-_

Ezra looked over at Aria as he pulled his fingers off the keys of his laptop. Ella was upstairs taking a nap, and his mother had left after Ella had gotten back with the promise that she'd find a way to get in touch with him later. Something told him though that she was less pleased about losing her iPhone than he was about losing his own. Though there was an irony to it, his mother seemed to enjoy technology more than he did.

Aria had her English textbook open in front of her, but he could tell she wasn't that focused on it.

"You're upset with me," he said. It wasn't a question. It was an observation.

"No," she said, looking up at him, and then back at her textbook.

"Yes," Ezra said, leaning forward and placing his laptop on the coffee table. "You are. I knew your angry face after a week of knowing you. You're more than angry. You're pissed."

Aria sighed, closing her textbook and settling it on the table. She stared down at her hands as he picked at the nail polish on her fingers. "I…I don't understand how you kept all of this a secret."

"So you're mad I didn't tell you about my father," he said.

Aria turned to face him. "Yes. No. I- I don't know. A little of both, I think. I'm upset that you kept a secret like this, especially after I told you about Mona."

Ezra sighed. He grabbed her legs and pulled her forward so that her legs rested in his lap, before he grabbed her hands. "Do you remember when you told me about Mona and I got upset with you for keeping it a secret so long?"

Aria nodded.

"But you said it was to protect me," he added. "To keep the people you loved safe because you knew that she was capable of really hurting someone if she wanted to."

"It's not that, though," Aria said. She bit her bottom lip for a moment. "Its that you didn't tell me you were dealing with this. And, okay…What if he had shown up in Rosewood and you were just gone one day? What would I have done then?"

Ezra shook his head, frowning. "I like to think that I would've told you if there was a cause for alarm. I just didn't want you to worry about things that weren't otherwise a problem."

Aria pressed her lips together as tears filled her eyes. "Otherwise a problem? He threatened to kill your and your family!"

"And I haven't seen him since I was twelve," Ezra replied. "If my mother has anything to say about it, he'll never find either one of us."

"You really think he'll just leave?" Aria asked.

"No," Ezra replied quietly. He looked up at her nervously. "I think the only way he'll ever be stopped is if someone kills him."

Aria frowned and looked down at his hands over hers. Ezra reached up, still holding her hands, and tilted her chin up. They stared at each other for a moment before he leaned forward and kissed her chastely.

The door opened a moment later, and Aria leaned away from him, furrowing her brow. "Mike?" She called.

"No, sweetie, it's me-"

Byron's voice suddenly broke off as he came into Ezra's view. His expression fell away and was replaced by him clenching his jaw and his face turning red. "What are **you** doing here?!"

Aria quickly spun around, jumping off the couch. "Dad, it's not-"

"What it looks like," he replied quickly. "Because something tells me that isn't true. Is Ella here? And why do I get the feeling she probably doesn't know you're here with him?!"

Ezra rose up from the couch, walking around to step in front of Aria as Byron advanced towards them. "Mr. Montgomery, I-"

Byron's fist sent Ezra to the floor before he could say anything else. Ella came down the stairs a moment later, clearly having just woken up at Byron's yelling. She looked down at Ezra, and Aria kneeling down next to him, and then looked back at Byron angrily.

"What'd you do that for!?" She walked over to Aria and Ezra, offering him a hand as he swiped his hand across his bottom lip and came away with blood.

"What the hell is he doing here!?" Byron yelled. "And why aren't you and Aria at school?!"

"Are your stitches ripped?" Aria asked once Ezra was on his feet. She pulled his lip down slightly. The corner of his lip was bleeding, but his stitches were still intact.

"If you had called me back like I told you to, this could've been properly explained," Ella said to him angrily. "Ezra is staying here because-"

"He's staying here!?"

Ella groaned, looking at Aria and Ezra. "We'll be back."

She pulled her hair down out of the clip it was in and then twisted it back up before grabbing her jacket and keys before she walked out of the house, pushing Byron in front of her.

"My dad is an idiot," Aria said, turning to look back at Ezra.

Ezra shrugged, touching his finger to his new wound before wincing. "You know, as much as I don't like that he hates me, I've always thought it was nice that he cared enough to be angry. My father only wanted to abuse me."

"Oh," Aria said, with a light smirk playing on her face. "So do you want me to call him back in here to hit you again?"

Ezra chuckled. "No. I'm just saying that it's good that he cares and wants to protect you. Not everyone has that."

"It's great that he wants to protect me," Aria replied. "But not at the expense of trying to kill you."

Ezra nodded, extending a hand to her. She reached out and took his hand and squeezed it lightly. It was quiet for a few moments as they walked back over to the couch and sat back down. Aria tugged out the pull-out extender and then crawled up onto the couch next to Ezra. She laid her legs over his as he wrapped his arm around her.

"Can I ask you something about him?" Aria asked tentatively.

"Anything," Ezra replied.

"Was he…" She paused for a moment, reconsidering her words. "I mean, did he always do it? Was he- er, did he ever _not _hurt you?"

Ezra pressed his lips together as he stared down at the floor.

"_Shh," Michael murmured into his ear as his hand brushed down through Ezra's curly hair. He hurt in the worst ways, and he wasn't even all that sure of what had just happened. His hands trembled as he pulled his blankets up over his body and curled into a ball._

_Michael placed something on Ezra's arm before running his hand over Ezra's head again. "Hush. You'll be fine. Go to sleep." _

_Michael turned and walked out of the room. As light illuminated the room, Ezra caught sight of what was in his arms. The stuffed cookie monster doll his mother had gotten for him the day before when she'd told him she was having a baby. His favorite character off Sesame Street. He pulled the stuffed animal tight to his chest and buried his face into the plush fabric. _

"No," he said coldly. "My earliest memories of him hurting me. And I don't really know what drove him to do it, but I don't think I really ever **want **to understand why he did it. He threatened me against telling my mother or anyone else, and I was too scared to go against him. He had too many friends that terrified me."

Aria lifted her head up and looked up at Ezra. "Did you ever think she knew?"

Ezra shrugged and gulped. "I think she did in the end. She almost caught him one night when I was screaming because he broke my arm. When she came in, he said it was my fault because I twisted away from him. They split up a few days after that. But she was a doctor, and she worked a lot of hours. It was easy for him to get to me." He looked down at Aria sadly. "He'd leave Wes screaming in his crib for hours just so he or his friends could hurt me."

"Your brother…" Aria murmured.

"No," Ezra replied quickly. "Never. I begged him not to; said I'd do whatever it took. He made sure I made good on that promise." He stared at the floor, still dealing with the flooding of memories that had were attacking his brain since the day before. "I remember when we first moved, I slept in my mom's room. She had this walk-in closet that she turned into a bedroom for me because there was only one way in, and in order to get to it, you had to get in her room. It was small as hell, and there wasn't much room to move around, but that's where I felt safest. Somewhere he couldn't get to me."

He looked down at Aria. She forced a rueful smile on her face as she reached up to wipe tears off her face. She gulped.

"I don't want him to ever touch you again," she murmured.

Ezra sighed a shaky breath and gripped her upper arm tightly as he pressed his lips to her forehead. He wished for the same thing.


	3. Don't Tell Me That It's Too Late To Love

_Chapter 3_

_Don't Tell Me That It's Too Late To Love You_

Ezra groaned softly as he lifted his head up off the couch later that afternoon. Aria had gone up to her bed to take a nap, and he'd fallen asleep on the couch before he could follow her up. Ruckus had roused him at some point later though, when the front door opened and people were talking.

He tugged the blanket on his body off and looked around the room as he reached up to rub the weariness from his eyes. He stood a moment later and straightened his track pants before running a hand through his hair and stretching. His black thermal clung to his skin from the nightmare he'd just awoken from him. He pulled on it as Ella and Dianne walked into the room.

"Oh good, sweetie," Dianne said with a solemn smile. "You're awake. He's awake."

"That's great!"

A smile pulled at the corners of Ezra's mouth at the familiar voice. It faltered a moment later though as Hardy walked around the doorway and came into view. Bruises coated most of his face, and his right eye was covered by a bandage patch, though Ezra suspected it was swollen shut. He had cuts along his bottom lip and a bandage covering a spot on his forehead.

"God damn it, Hardy," Ezra murmured.

"S'not as bad as it looks," Hardy insisted. "Really. The Vicodin cuts most of the pain out, and really just makes me hungry. Besides-"

"I am not worth **this**," Ezra said, cutting Hardy off before he could say it. "I'm not worth Michael Fitzgerald nearly ripping your face off."

"Well too bad," Hardy told him as he slapped his hand on Ezra's back and they walked into the kitchen. The gesture didn't keep Ezra from seeing the splints he had on two of his fingers, though. "It's not as if he did much damage as it was anyway. A few broken knuckles and some bruises. C'mon, Z, he didn't even break my nose."

Ezra shook his head at his best friend as they walked into the kitchen. He wanted to launch into a thousand different reasons about why this wasn't okay, and about why they shouldn't all be sacrificing their time to protect him. He knew his father better than anyone else on the planet. Michael would find a way to get to him, one way or another.

He settled on a stool at the counter next to Hardy. Dianne settled a plate of food in front of him a moment later. "Eat."

Ezra scowled at the food on the plate, but before he could protest, Dianne shook her head at him.

"Tell me just once that you've eaten something in the past twenty-four hours," she said. "You're going to make yourself sick and end up in the hospital. And didn't we already have that discussion? Oh wait, yes we did. So eat!"

She turned to help Ella continue unloading groceries, and Ezra couldn't help but be slightly surprised at the sight. For as long as he could remember, house keepers had taken care of stocking groceries at home. He couldn't recall **ever **seeing his mother being so domestic.

Hardy snuck a piece of cantaloupe off the plate of food and popped it into his mouth, winking jokingly at Ezra. Ezra rolled his eyes as he picked up a piece of apple and took a bite of it. His stomach churned in protest of the food before he even had a chance to chew it, but he forced himself to anyway.

He'd been through a similar situation when Dianne had first left Michael. For the first several weeks, every time he tried to eat something, his body rejected it, too easily remembering the last time he'd had to swallow something. It had been years since he'd dealt with his body fighting him like this, but it occasionally liked to remind him that it was still a possibility.

He forced down half an apple, a dozen grapes, and a few slices of the cantaloupe before letting Hardy 'help' him finish off the rest, when in reality, he pushed the remainder of the food around the plate until Hardy had finished it all.

Dianne took the plate once it was empty and then Ella took it from her and settled it in the dishwasher. Dianne came back to the island and sat down across from Hardy and Ezra.

"Were you followed out of New York?" She asked Hardy.

Hardy shook his head. "We made three stops and changed cars twice. There's no reason we should've been followed."

Dianne nodded. "I'm sure if you were, Michael would've found a way to strike already anyway."

"I thought you said you were pretty sure he was in town anyway," Ezra muttered glumly. "He already knows where I live."

Dianne shook her head. "I don't really know where he is, if I'm being entirely honest. What I **do **know, is that he knows everything about your life in the last five years. In its own way, keeping your relationship with Aria a secret for almost a year might've been the smartest thing you ever did, because there's no trace of it."

Ezra sighed "No, maybe not, but there are things that are going to point to me being with **someone**."

"Like what?!" Dianne growled lowly.

Ezra sighed. "Like typical relationship keepsakes! I didn't exactly get the chance to go over there and pack my things myself, you know."

Dianne shook her head. "Either way, I'm sure it's too late now. He's probably already picked apart your apartment to see if he can find anything. **Is **there anything he could find that could lead him to you?"

Ezra shook his head. "Not that I can think of."

Dianne nodded. "Good. Let's keep it that way."

The rest of the night passed in a lazier fashion. Eventually, Aria woke from her nap and joined them on the main level. Ella ordered pizza, though she left the house to pick it up. They settled in the sitting room when she came back and watched a movie. It was a comedy, purposely chosen to loosen the heavy mood hanging over all of them, but it didn't really seem to do as much as there was little laughter, and everyone in their own way, was focused on Ezra and everything that was at stake in the coming days.

At some point, Ezra and Aria both fell asleep on the couch. She was curled up with her head in his lap, and his arm wrapped around her side as his own head rested on his shoulder. They were covered with the blanket from Aria's bed.

When the movie was over, Hardy dismissed himself from the house, and Ella proceeded to pick up the leftovers before putting them in the fridge and breaking down the empty boxes. Once again, Dianne helped her. Once they were finished picking up, Ella grabbed a bottle of Pinot Grigio and poured herself a glass. After taking a sip, she realized Dianne was still in the room.

"Want a glass?" Ella asked. Dianne shrugged.

Ella retrieved a second glass and filled it halfway before handing to Dianne. She could see that the older woman was conflicted with everything currently going on. She looked into the sitting room and smiled sadly at Aria and Ezra asleep on the couch.

"Why don't we go upstairs?" Ella offered. "I can show you one of the guest rooms."

"I shouldn't stay here," Dianne said dismissively.

"Your ex isn't going to storm this house in the middle of the night unless he really wants to draw attention to himself," Ella replied. "You can go back to your hotel for a while tomorrow. He'll never know the difference. If he's even in town, that is."

Dianne seemed skeptical at Ella's offer, but she gave in nonetheless. After a few minutes, she nodded and followed Ella through the kitchen, into the family room. She settled her glass of wine on the coffee table long enough to shake out Aria's blanket over Aria and Ezra before she picked it up again and headed up the stairs with Dianne following slowly behind.

They climbed the stairs and Ella led Dianne to her room. She gestured to the small loveseat across the room. She walked into the bathroom adjoined to her room and changed into a t-shirt and pajama pants and then washed her face before opening the door and walking back into the bedroom. Dianne was seated on the loveseat, tapping madly on her phone.

"Missing work?" Ella asked as she picked up her glass of wine off her dresser and took a drink from it.

Dianne smiled. "It's an unfortunate thing to say, but I know a lot more about fixing a gaping wound than I do all of this stuff going on with Michael and Ezra. I hate this feeling that I can't do what's right for my son. He shouldn't have to hide to be safe."

"Can I ask-"

"If I really didn't know that Michael was abusing him for twelve years?" Dianne said, finishing Ella's statement for her. A grim look coated her face. "To be perfectly honest, I was devoted to my job for many years. Ezra always had an odd attitude towards his father, but I assumed it was because we both worked as much as we did. Michael worked VICE for more than a decade, and he worked a lot of odd hours, and I just assumed Ezra's dislike for his father came from the fact that he wasn't there. And, you know, he was a boy that liked to climb on things." She shook her head as tears filled her eyes. "I was ignorant in a lot of ways that I shouldn't have been. If I had known, we never would have stayed so long. I never would've left my son to be tortured like that."

"But…" Ella turned her wine glass slowly in her hands, nervous to approach such tender subject matter. "The scars, on his neck."

Dianne nodded. "I was neglectful because I spent more time working than anything else. And we had a housekeeper who was an illegal. I think she knew, but she was afraid of Michael having her deported."

She looked up, and her eyes fell on a photo on Ella's dresser. It was from the beginning of the school year. Aria and Mike had talked Ella into going out to dinner, and Ezra had joined them. When it was just the four of them without Byron, Mike and Ezra seemed to be able to forge some sort of a friendship, despite the age difference. Of course, there was the commonality of liking video games, and Mike was smart in his own right, so they got along well.

At the end of the night, someone had snapped a photo of the four of them. Aria and Ezra were in the middle while Mike was on Ezra's left, and Ella was on Aria's right. They were all smiling and cheerful in the photo.

"He seems very in-place with your family," Dianne said.

Ella smiled solemnly. "He was a colleague when he worked at the high school, and then he worked with Byron at Hollis, so he was very well accepted before we even knew about he and Aria."

Dianne nodded again. She looked back at Ella. "I've got to ask…How did you **ever **manage to accept **that**? I can't imagine that if one of my boys came home and told me they were dating their teacher that I'd take it well."

Ella chuckled. "Oh trust me, we didn't. We told Aria and Ezra that they weren't to see or speak to each other. Unknown to my ex-husband and I, they continued to anyhow, and then Ezra was offered the job in New Orleans. When Aria told me, she insinuated that she would leave if he left, and I couldn't let her leave like that." She paused for a moment, taking a drink of her wine. "To be perfectly honest, I was still coming around on the two of them when I found out about his father. I just… I never expected him to have a secret like that."

Dianne nodded as she took a drink from her own glass of wine. "When he came to Rosewood, he wanted to be someone entirely different from who he was and what he'd been through before he left New York. I think what his father put him through still affected him; he just hid it well.

"I worry," she said honestly. "Knowing what Michael put him through the first time and how hard it was for him to deal with it. I don't know that he can deal with Michael hurting him in those ways again."

Ella stared at her for several long moments before she spoke. "Ezra can't deal with it? Or you can't?"

"What do you mean?" Dian asked. There was an edge to her voice, as if she felt like Ella was insulting her.

"I mean is it possible that **you're **not sure you can handle knowing your son is going through something like that again? I imagine there's a lot of guilt to be carried around after seeing someone you love so dearly suffer through the effects of that."

Dianne considered Ella's words for a few minutes before she nodded tentatively. "I swear to god, I'll make sure Michael is dead if he ever lays so much as a finger on my son again."

_-  
When you're feeling lost, and there's nowhere, nowhere to go  
__When you're feeling sad, don't forget you can reach for my hand  
-_

When Ezra awoke the next day, the house was silent. Aria was gone, presumably to school, and Ella had gone with her. He looked around the room and spotted the clock. It was just after eleven AM. He was surprised he had slept as long as he had, and that he had slept as **soundly **as he had.

He pushed off the couch and shoved the pull-out back under the couch before walking into the kitchen. There was a note lying on the counter.

_Went over to the hotel for a bit. I'll be back soon!  
__-Mom_

He sighed as he tapped his hand against the counter. His phone rang in the next room. He walked back in and grabbed it, tapping on the touch screen to answer the call.

"Hey, ma. Coming back soon?" He asked as he cradled the phone against his shoulder. He leaned over and picked up Aria's blanket and proceeded to fold it up.

There was silence on the other end of the line. He pulled the phone away from ear and checked to make sure the call was still connected before bringing it back to his ear. "Ma?"

He waited a few moments longer and then wondered if she had accidentally dialed him from her purse, given that she was using an unfamiliar, prepaid phone. Still, the silence lingered on the other end of the phone, and it dawned on him that it could be Michael. How he would even know to find Ezra was beyond his own ability to understand. "Leave me alone," he said suddenly. "And don't call here again."

"_Hang up and I'll kill that precious thing you call a girlfriend."_

Ezra steeled in his movements and his hand trembled as he continued to holed his phone to his ear. "You're lying-"

_"Am I?" _Ezra's phone chimed in his ear, signaling a text message. _"Check it. I'm not."_

Ezra pulled his phone tentatively away from his ear. The photo was from inside Rosewood High School. Aria and Ella were both standing in the classroom, and the photo was time-stamped for that day.

Ezra stomach churned. He knew it wouldn't be hard for Michael to fake such a thing if he really wanted to, but something told him that he wasn't bluffing about this. "What do you want?"

"_Now, now," _Michael commented back. _"We needn't get there just yet. However, you're going to do everything I say, because if you don't, I'm going to take her family out one by one. And just to keep things interesting, I'll start with her father."_

Ezra gulped, his hands began to tremble as he stood there.

"_You're going to leave the house, and drive to the your apartment, and then catch a cab to the motel on the edge of town. Room 317. You'll knock twice. And you'll do it because if you don't show up in the next thirty minutes, Byron Montgomery will be shot in the head."_

Ezra breathed a shaky breath. There was a soft laugh on the other end of the phone.

"_And just incase that's not enough to entice you, when I **do** get around to killing your girlfriend, I'll make sure you're the one who pulls the trigger. Ten minutes, Ez."_

With that, the line clicked dead, and Ezra's hand dropped to his side. His phone slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor, face down. He looked down at it and then proceeded to vomit down the front of himself.

When the shock started to wane a few seconds later, he reached down and picked up his phone before grabbing his bag of clothes from the floor with shaking hands. He walked to the bathroom and dug through the bag until he found a long-sleeved dark green shirt and a pair of jeans. He pulled them from the bag and then tossed them onto the counter and quickly changed out of the soiled clothes and tossed them to the floor before changing into the clean ones. He tugged socks on his feet and then walked out of the room and into the kitchen. He flipped the note his mother had left on the table over and grabbed the pen lying nearby. His hand still trembled as it hovered over the paper, trying to think of the right words.

His phone chimed in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked down.

**Tell her, and she'll be dead before anyone can be there to help her. **

He screamed and threw his phone across the room. He balled up the sheet of paper and then tossed it in the trash before dropping the pen on the table and walking out of the room. He walked to the doorway, where his shoes had been since he'd shown up the other night. He quickly tugged them on and then grabbed his keys from where they hung next to the door. He walked out of the house and down the block to where his car was parked.

Over the next half hour, he followed Michael's instructions to a tee. The option to run didn't even register to him until he was knocking on the door to the hotel room, because it would've been useless. He knew Michael well enough to know that he wouldn't hesitate to hurt, if not **kill**, Aria and her family because he decided to run. And Michael had a good enough shot that he could take out the entire Montgomery family without them ever knowing who had shot them.

The door opened in front of him, and the smile that covered Michaels face made him sick to his stomach.

"Please, come in," the older man told him. He stepped aside, and Ezra forced down a hard knot in his throat as he swallowed. He walked into the room. Every ounce of hope he carried of leaving the room alive disappeared as Michael closed the door behind himself.

"If you're lying to me-"

"If I was lying to you, you wouldn't be here," Michael said, rolling his eyes. "In fact, last I was told, Byron Montgomery was teaching a lecture over at the college."

He walked around Ezra in a circle as Ezra stood still in the center of the room. The bed had been moved to the side of the room, leaving a generous amount of space. It only made Ezra's stomach churn more. He felt incredibly nauseated again.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Michael simpered. "That your girlfriend's father works at the same college at which you attended? The same college you worked at earlier this year." He was quiet for a moment as he came to stand in front of Ezra. "It was so easy, really. A letter to the dean about misconduct as a teacher-"

"You got me fired from Hollis?!" Ezra growled.

"Drop the attitude," Michael told him, pointing his gun lazily at Ezra. Ezra leaned back and took a step backward. Michael walked over to the table on the opposite side of the room as the bed, and Ezra noticed the men sitting there for the first time. He pushed his sleeves up and then walked back over to Ezra and placed a hand on his shoulder. A second later, he drilled a fist into Ezra's gut hard enough to cause him to double over. His grip on Ezra's shoulder kept him from falling to the floor, but it was clear that he'd hurt him. "Now, now…" he said with a false sense of care. It dropped a moment later as he spoke once more. "Shut the hell up."

"What do you want from me?" Ezra strained as he struggled to catch his breath. Just as he was beginning to stand up right again, Michael punched him in the diaphragm again. Ezra whimpered as he doubled forward once more, trying to breathe. His abs hurt like hell.

"For you to shut the hell up," Michael told him again. He removed his hand from Ezra's shoulder, just for a moment, as he reached behind his head and removed a chain hanging from his neck. Among other things on it, were dog tags from the four years he spent in the marines before Ezra's mother had met him. There were rings as well, which he slid off the chain and then proceeded to slip onto each of his fingers.

Ezra forced himself to stand up straight, even as it hurt to breathe, because a moment later, Michael moved to punch him again. Ezra caught his wrist as he leaned away from Michael's fist. Michael chuckled angrily.

"You really shouldn't have done that," he murmured. He tilted his head up, and a moment later, Ezra's arms were yanked tightly behind his back. He couldn't see, but the sound of restraining metal digging tight into his wrists told him a moment later that they had cuffed his hands behind him. They held his upper arms tightly and a moment later Michael punched him hard in the jaw. The hit was hard enough that blood spewed from Ezra's mouth as his head wrenched to the side.

Michael gripped his shoulder once more before he smiled at Ezra. It was a sickeningly false sense of security, because a moment later, cold metal wrapped around Ezra's neck, tugging him backwards. It locked a moment later, and then Michael nodded to the guys that had been sitting at the table, as well as the ones who had been standing behind Ezra. The five of them exited the room, leaving Michael alone with Ezra.

"If you want your little girlfriend to live, you're going to do exactly what I want, got it?" Michael taunted.

Ezra stared at him head-on, refusing to give an answer. The disregard seemed to anger Michael further, because he grabbed Ezra's shoulders and tugged him forward, causing the chain wrapped around his neck to dig in and cut off his air supply.

"I **said **you're going to do exactly what I want," Michael growled lowly. "Did you hear me this time?"

Ezra nodded quickly as his feet struggled against the floor, searching for purchase. Michael held him in that position for a few moments longer before he released him, and Ezra fell back onto his heels, gasping for air.

"Good," Michael said huskily. Before Ezra could do or say anything else, Michael proceeded to punch him again in the diaphragm. He scrambled yet again for purchase, but managed to regain his balance after a moment when Michael grabbed the chain attached to his neck. He stared Ezra hard in the eyes before he punched him again.

After the fifth hit to his gut, Ezra lost count of the drilling punches. He stopped trying to suck in gasps of air as pain radiated throughout his body. He could feel the heat emanating from his abdomen when Michael finally stopped hitting him, from the multiple hits.

Michael walked behind him and the chain holding him upright grew slack as Michael pulled it down from wherever it was hanging off the ceiling. Ezra's legs gave out below him, and he dropped to his knees, taking slow, shallow breaths because of the ache in his abdomen.

"Get up," Michael said breathlessly. Ezra turned his head to look at the older man, but any thought to not do what Michael was telling him went away when Michael cut off his air supply and Ezra began to gasp again.

Ezra moved to his feet as best he could. Michael held the chain in one hand while the other reached for a pair of scissors lying nearby on the dresser. Michael pulled the blades apart and then brought them to the hem of Ezra's shirt, just under his neck. Ezra gulped as Michael began to snip the material. After getting purchase on it, he proceeded to cut a few inches down the collar before he tossed the scissors back on the dresser and then tugged the shirt apart and it tore down the center. As it dropped off his shoulders, Ezra looked down his body and grimaced at the already bruised skin that coated his entire stomach. It started just under his ribcage, and extended all the way down his chest to just above his jeans.

Michael lifted the chain over Ezra's head again, and fear quickly built up in his body that Michael was going to begin hitting him again. He only relaxed in the slightest when Michael began removing the rings on his fingers, but his fear was renewed as he tugged on the belt keeping Ezra's jeans up his body. Ezra tugged on the cuffs binding his hands, yanking as hard as he could. It was futile though, as they only dug into his skin.

A few moments later, Michael pushed the clothing off of Ezra's hips, and it fell to the floor, pooling at Ezra's feet. He leaned down and removed the clothing entirely from Ezra's body before grabbing the scissors again and cutting the sleeves of his shirt so that it fell to the floor along with the other discarded clothing.

Ezra trembled with fear as Michael left him to stand there, unable to move. Michael walked behind him, and he struggled against the chain on his neck to turn and see what Michael was doing, but he was unable to.

The chain on his neck loosened once again a few moments later, and Michael came to stand in front of him again. With one hard shove, he knocked Ezra to the floor with his arms pinned under him. He dropped to his knees and tugged Ezra forward.

Ezra clenched his eyes shut, trying once again to pull on the cuffs around his wrists. Once again, they simply dug into his wrists. Michael pulled him forward, and Ezra could feel the hardened organ pressing against him. He tilted his head up and pulled even harder on his restraints, trying to get his hands free. It was futile, but Michael thrust forward a moment later and Ezra cried out. He tugged on the chain wrapped around Ezra's neck, cutting off his ability to breathe once more.

Michael thrust in and out of him, smiling sickly when Ezra's penis began to harden. He wrapped his hand around it and leaned down into Ezra's ear.

"Now isn't this fun? You'll enjoy this, I **promise." **

He stroked him in his hand, smiling as Ezra strained against him and his muscles grew taut, trying not to give in to the obvious, albeit forced, pleasure he was feeling. His legs shook on either side of Michael, trying to stop the feelings building between his legs as Michael thrusted harder inside of him. With his free hand, he lifted Ezra's leg over his shoulder, and his thrusts became deeper, hitting Ezra's prostate. Precum began to leak from the head of Ezra's penis and his leg curled around Michaels neck as Michael reached down and squeezed Ezra's throat until cum gushed onto his stomach in long, warm streams. Ezra shook beneath him as he struggled to breathe, but Michael didn't let up until he was sure he'd stroked the last drop out of him, and then he only released him for a few seconds, before squeezing his throat again as he came himself.

He laid on top of Ezra in the moments after, his own erection throbbing inside of him as he struggled to catch his breath. Ezra had returned to his ministrations of trying to get his hands free from the cuffs.

When Michael was finished, he redressed himself and smiled down at his son. "You're not going anywhere."

The door opened a few moments later, and Ezra pulled harder on his restraints as the guys who had left returned. They needed no instruction as they uncuffed his hands and then four of them grabbed one of his limbs. They moved him to his knees, and even though Ezra's body ached, he was kept upright by the desire to be able to breathe. Michael wrapped the chain around his hand.

"You're my dog now," he seethed before punching Ezra in the face with the chain still wrapped around his hand. "Got it?"

He didn't give Ezra a chance to answer as he punched him again. "You won't ever tell a soul another thing, because this is your life now," he said. "You eat when I say you eat. You drink when I say you drink. You **sleep **when I say you sleep!"

He continued punching him in the face and then his chest and stomach until Ezra was curled over, gasping for air from the tightness of the chain on the neck, trying to cough up blood that had built up in his mouth.

He shoved Ezra to his knees and sat in a chair, pulling Ezra's arms behind him and pulling the chain as one of the guys moved in front of him. He was well over six feet with chocolate skin and matching eyes. As he removed his erection from his pants, Ezra squirmed in fear. He had a large penis that was sure to gag him.

"Open up or I'll have my guy get your girl here before midnight," Michael growled. Tears peaked in Ezra's eyes as he opened his mouth. The man thrust into his mouth without any notice and grabbed Ezra by his hair, thrusting in and out of his mouth. He smiled as Ezra gagged on him, his throat closing around the large intrusion. There was no way to move or fight as the man bruised the back of his throat and made him struggle.

When he was finished, he was followed by another. When the third guy removed his jeans, Michael shoved Ezra forward and removed his clothes before making him sit on him and ride him while he leaned forward and sucked the third man's penis. When Michael finished, he threw Ezra to the floor and handed the chain to the first guy, saying he needed to go out, but for the men to have fun.

Ezra squirmed futilely as the man removed his jeans again and rolled Ezra onto his hands and knees. There was one thing Michael was right about. This hell was never going end.


	4. I Don't Care If Heaven Won't Take Me

**A/N: **Very graphic writing ahead. You've been warned.

_Chapter 4_

_I Don't Care If Heaven Won't Take Me Back_

Dianne turned a cup of coffee in her hand tightly, barely having the wherewithal to keep from popping the cap off and spilling the hot liquid all over the table. All she could think about was where her son might be and how, if at all possible, they were going to get Ezra back. Her head spun with the possibilities. She'd known as soon as she found the vomit on the floor and the soiled clothes in the bathroom that something had happened at Ezra's expense. However, it had taken until late into the night to get a hold of Michael, and when she finally had, the GPS track she had put on it only traced to a ritzy hotel in Philadelphia. She knew better than to think he'd be stupid enough to hold Ezra there.

Logically, she knew that Michael was too pissed to kill him right away. He wanted to torture Ezra too much to kill him just yet. But she knew that there was a chance that Michael would eventually get sick of the inevitable fallout of torturing his son without someone to fix the damage he inflicted. She may have been too blinded by her job when her children were kids to see what had really been happening, but she was always there to fix the physical wounds that were visible in which Michael inflicted.

"Well if it isn't my wife," came a sickly sweet voice.

Dianne only looked up at him marginally, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing anything but unadulterated rage on her face. He slid onto the bench across from her at the outside table she was seated at.

"Where is my son?" She said.

"Now, I haven't seen the boy in almost 11 years. And last I heard, he was getting well acquainted with some friends of mine. Let a father and son spend some time together." Michael smirked.

Dianne squeezed her phone tightly in her left hand, under the table. "You and I both know that spending time together is-"

"Careful," Michael told her. "You never know who might be here with me."

Dianne shook her head, pulling the cap off her coffee. She threw it across the table at him, soaking his face and shirt. "**Wrong**. I know _**exactly **_who you've got with you. This isn't New York, Michael. Too many people would raise suspicion, especially a bunch of out-of-town cops. And in a small town like Rosewood, people see things and people talk, so you had better get to telling me when you're leaving and when my son is coming home."

"Never," Michael seethed, grabbing her arm tightly from where he sat across from her. She pulled it back furiously.

"Wrong again," she growled at him. "Because in the twenty-five years we've known each other, you might've made friends, but so have I, and my friends go a **lot **higher than yours. So, if you want to live the rest of your life **out** of jail, you'll tell me where my son is."

He glared at her from across the table. "Five million dollars. You've got five days. Not too much at one time. Wouldn't want to raise suspicion." He pushed up from the table, but leaned down on it, looking her directly in the eyes. "My choice on **everything**. And if you screw up the _tiniest _thing, I'll make sure the next time you see him is in a body bag."

Dianne watched furiously as Michael walked away, waiting until he was in his car before she reached up to the ear piece placed inside her left ear. "You're on. Oh, and Wilden? I've heard things you've accused future daughter-in-law of. Get my son killed, and I'll make sure you never work as a detective in any city in this country ever again."

_-  
If love is what you need, a soldier I will be  
__I'm an angel with a shotgun fighting till the war's won  
-_

Ezra was pretty sure he had actually died and gone to hell. His entire body ached, and there wasn't barely an inch of skin that didn't have bruises on it. He awoke the next morning with a pulsing headache and throbbing genitals. The torture had continued late into the night, until they'd beaten him completely black and blue and he couldn't hold his own weight anymore. He was left on the floor where they beat him with nothing to cover him. The chain was still wrapped around his neck, and the other end was attached to the moved bed, keeping him locked up like an actual dog.

Once was awake and his 'keepers' were aware, Michael dragged him into the bathroom and ordered him to use the facilities. His hands and legs shook so hard that he struggled to keep his balance, and only when Michael and one of his henchmen each kneed Ezra in his kidneys, did his bladder finally release, sending a painful mix of urine and blood into the toilet.

Upon returning to the room, he was thrown to the floor, and Michael tightened the chain so that he couldn't breathe while he stroked Ezra until his penis was at full length. Michael proceeded to yank and twist on the organ, as Ezra whimpered against the torturous movements. Michael moved behind him, still holding the chain, and began to rape his son for the third time in twenty-four hours. Ezra had lost count of the total amount of times after the first ten. His legs shook even as he knelt while Michael moved him back and forth and thrust into him. He yanked on the chain, and Ezra scrambled futilely against the inability to breathe.

"You want to be able to breathe? Stop fighting," Michael growled in his ear.

He loosened the grip a moment later, and Ezra coughed, gasping for air. He dropped forward, moving his cuffed hands up to his throat as he sucked in slow breaths. When Michael finished with him, he stood and handed off the chain to one of his buddies while he dressed.

"Please," Ezra begged with a ragged voice. "Let me go home. I won't tell…"

Michael chuckled as he knelt down on the floor and yanked Ezra's head back by his hair. "You're never going to see anyone that I don't give you permission to **ever **again, so you better get that through your skull pretty quickly."

Before Ezra could say anything in response, Michael kneed him in the ribs, effectively breaking two that he'd been working on for the last twenty-four hours.

He stood a moment later and walked across the room, leaving Ezra lying on the floor, trying to breathe. When he returned a few seconds later, he placed a bowl next to Ezra's head. "Eat."

Ezra looked up at him, and then down at the bowl. It was dry cereal. Tentatively, he moved back onto his knees and then reached for the bowl. Michael tugged on the chain. "No. Like a dog."

Ezra gulped, looking up at Michael. Tears burned his eyes as he leaned down and opened his mouth. Slowly, he ate the dry cereal. His hunger kicked in after a few seconds, and he began to eat faster. Only when Michael started to pull the bowl away, did he realize the mess he was making. Michael smacked him hard across the face with a wrapped newspaper.

"Eat the food off the floor that you knocked over," he growled.

Ezra looked down. There were bits of cereal all around where the bowl had been. He leaned down again, sniffling as he ate the cereal. One piece had fallen into a small puddle of someone's semen. He nearly vomited as he gulped it down.

When he had finished, Ezra laid down and pulled his legs up tight against his chest and rested his head between his knees, partially to keep them from seeing the tears brimming his eyes, but mostly to as a survival tactic. After the night before, he knew better than to leave his body open to free shots for Michael and his goons to take. His sides ached the most though from the hard hits his kidneys had taken.

Though he wasn't sure how, his exhausted body fell asleep in that position. It wasn't for long though. He was woken a little more than twenty minutes later when someone yanked on the chain wrapped around his neck, and his hands moved to tug on it, trying to breathe. He gasped for air as he tried to curl his fingers around the thick chain, but it was futile; the chain was wrapped so tightly around his neck that it had already bruised, and the slightest tug cut off his ability to breathe.

One of the nameless guys, the biggest one who had come after him first the day before after Michael had 'finished' with him, hovered over him as he let go of the chain. Ezra couldn't see, but he'd somehow attached it to something behind him, leaving Ezra unable to move at all unless he wanted to cut off his air supply.

The man removed himself from his pants a moment later, and then grabbed Ezra by the back of his head. He fisted a handful of Ezra's curly black hair and yanked it back. "Open your mouth, whore."

Ezra did as he was told as one of the other guys walked over to him. _Oh god_, he worried fearfully as the second largest guy came to stand in front of him. _Not both of them at once. _

But it was not to be. The man wedged two small blocks into his mouth, behind his molars. The reason became clear to Ezra when the biggest guy had him choking two seconds later on his penis. If he couldn't close his mouth, he couldn't bite. If he couldn't bite, all he could do was take it. The torture was only made worse when the man grabbed the back of his head with his other hand and pulled Ezra forward with each thrust, causing him to gag harder from the inability to breathe. His body had long forgotten how to suffer through such torturous exercises, and even then, it had never been for this long or to this extent.

When the first guy finished, the next guy stepped up and proceeded to take his turn. What Ezra wished would desperately would pass in blur, did anything but. He was kept on his knees as, one after another, they continued the assault on his mouth. It only became more hellish when his fears came to pass and they began taking turns with raping him while they continued to assault his mouth.

Michael returned at some point after they had each taken him twice while one of the other guys made him gag. He struggled against his restraints when they forced him to his feet, but the struggle was useless, given that his legs trembled so hard that he could barely stand. They didn't give him a choice though, as the chain around his neck once again disappeared behind his head, holding him up unless he wanted to choke.

Michael forced him to take a step forward so that his ability to breathe was compromised before stuffing a cloth into Ezra's mouth to keep him quiet. He covered it with a piece of duct tape after that to ensure it would stay there.

"We're finished with your mouth at the moment," Michael said tauntingly. "And you've been so good that I've decided to reward you. I brought you a present."

Given that Ezra couldn't see that door, he struggled to turn when it opened. It closed a few seconds later, and Michael smiled as a guy close to Ezra's age came to kneel in front of him. Ezra gulped, struggling to breathe against the chain as he looked down at the guy kneeling in front of him. He couldn't have been any older than Ezra himself.

"I got him just for you," Michael said happily. "And just incase you're thinking about saying no…"

MIchael grabbed the chain and tugged it backwards while one of his guys walked up to Ezra. He shoved his hand up under Ezra's nose and held it there until the white powder that had been there a few moments before was gone. Ezra's nose burned as the cocaine starrted to take effect. He could tell that the man in front of him was high as he wrapped his bony fingers around Ezra's flaccid penis and began to stroke him.

Try as Ezra might, he was no stronger than the average man as the guy below him stroked him to full length, and then eventually brought him to release. If it weren't for the fact that the cocaine had dulled his pain, he likely would've been fighting harder against his restraints for freedom. After the drug addict finished with him, though, they let him down once more he dropped to the floor. He curled into the fetal position and wrapped his arms around his head. They must've grown bored with him, or paid the drug addict to do more for them, because a few moments later, he was asleep.

_-  
Just close your eyes, the sun is going down  
__You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now  
-_

Aria tossed her textbook to the end of her bed and stared at it as it laid there. She didn't have the wherewithal to study US History when all she could think about was Ezra, holed up somewhere being tortured. She'd found herself in a similar position as he had been a few days earlier, when she'd screamed her way through the night before. Every time she fell asleep, she had nightmares about him being raped and tortured by faceless men. Each dream was worse than the previous, leaving her sobbing in her sleep until she finally managed to wake herself from the nightmare assaulting her senses.

"Aria?"

She looked up dully at her mother. She knew better than to think that Ella was coming to tell her that they'd found Ezra. She knew how well Detective Wilden worked, and she didn't really have night hopes.

"Your father and Mike are here," Ella murmured. "Why don't you come downstairs for a bit."

Aria was reluctant to move, but she did so anyway, walking over to her mother. As she walked past her dresser, she grabbed the picture frame resting on the end of it. It was a photo that someone had taken of her and Ezra in New York early in the summer. After working in the gallery all day long, Ezra had come by to take her for dinner. They had been sitting at the bar of some grill, and she'd wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him to her as she faced him. They were both smiling.

She followed Ella down the steps and into the kitchen, still holding the frame tightly to her chest. Dianne was standing in the kitchen, sorting through a box of things. Aria walked over to where she was, but tears quickly flooded her eyes when she spotted the blue cookie monster doll. She snatched it from the box and clutched it tight to her chest as fresh tears ran down her face.

"What's all the fuss about?" Byron asked as he looked over at Aria. Something about her expression disturbed him. An immediate question would've been what Ezra had done to hurt her, but given the fact that a woman baring a striking resemblance to him was standing across the island from him, he said nothing.

"Ezra is gone," Aria whimpered. Her voice faltered on the last word. Dianne passed her a tissue. The older woman was more held together, though it had more to do with her determination to believe that when things came to an end this time around, Michael would have a bullet in his brain that she put there.

"Not surprised," Byron said with a sigh.

Aria's brow furrowed in a mix of hurt and confusion. Dianne looked up at him, surprised. A flash of anger crossed her face. "What's that supposed to mean?" Aria cried.

Byron sighed, looking at her with a pitied frown. "An officer showed up at my office yesterday. Told me he's been investigating Ezra for months now. Apparently he carried on a relationship with a student in Philadelphia when he was student teaching. She filed charges on him, and they've been looking for him, but he changed his name. Or at least-"

"His last name," Ella muttered, looking down at the counter as her brow furrowed further.

"He's fucking sick," Mike said.

"Mike!" Byron and Ella both yelled in unison.

"I guess he found him. I've got the cop's card. His name is M-"

"Michael Fitzgerald," Dianne said before Byron had even pulled the card out. Byron looked over at her, confused.

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

Dianne sighed, running a hand through her hair as she shook her head. "Michael Fitzgerald is Ezra's father. His father who he hasn't seen in more than a decade, and who abused him until I divorced him. You sent my son walking into a death trap."

Byron stood there looking back and forth between the three women in front of him, not speaking for a long time. When he did, he did so nervously. "I didn't know-"

"Yes, because you didn't listen to a thing I said yesterday morning!" Ella yelled. "Whether you like Ezra or not doesn't matter in this situation! I would've thought you'd have the forethought to do whatever it takes to protect your **daughter**!"

"He's the one bringing the danger to her!" Byron argued back.

Loud fighting ensued over the next few minutes as Aria's crying grew harder until she was sobbing and gulping down breaths, trying to breathe. When the screaming finally stopped, it was because Dianne, Mike, and Aria all yelled at once for Byron and Ella to stop.

"Can't you see you're hurting your children!?" Dianne yelled at them. She looked at Byron. "And while Michael might be unsafe, if Ezra does what he tells him to, your children will never be touched. In fact, I would dare to guess that he probably threatened one of your lives in order to get my son to come to him."

"Aria-"

Dianne shook her head. "He wouldn't have threatened Aria's life unless a last resort. Killing her first would be useless, because then he would know Ezra would never come to him. No, he would've threatened someone close enough to her that their death would've affected her, and someone who would be easily accessible. He would've tortured my son with the fact that the blood would be on his hands. And if he hadn't gone, Michael would've taken out the members of your family until only Aria remained. And then he would've made Ezra be the one to hurt her."

"You can't possibly know that," Byron said.

"Wrong again, Mr. Montgomery," Dianne disagreed. "If there's two people I know best in this world, its my eldest son, and his father. I was married to Michael for nearly fifteen years, and I know everything about his tactics and his movements. But more than anything, I know he'll do whatever he has to, to get his hands on my son and hurt him. That's all Michael has cared about for the last eleven years. The day I took Ezra away from him was the day that he started planning how to get him back."

Aria looked up at Byron and shook her head as tears fell down her face. "When are you going to realize that he's not as evil as you make him out to be?"

Byron stood in silence across the island from Aria and Dianne, at a loss for words. To attempt to make Ezra out to be the bad guy in the current situation would essentially solidify any chance there was that Aria hated him. Even if he didn't agree with his wife or his daughter, and even if he still didn't have the best feelings towards Ezra Fitz, he knew better than to stay on the offensive on the current subject.

"So what are we supposed to do?" He asked finally.

Dianne sighed, moving Ezra's box of possessions onto the floor. There were papers that had been resting under it. "Michael wants five million dollars by Sunday. On this end, it means that we have until Sunday to find him and get my son back. If Michael leaves the state…he's got too many things at his disposal to keep Ezra hidden."

Aria's legs gave out from under her and she dropped hard against the hardwood floor as sobs escaped her. She clung tightly to the stuffed toy she still held in her hands as her shoulders rattled with each sob that wracked through her.

Ella came around the island and dropped down to her haunches, steadying on the balls of her feet as she placed one hand on Aria's left arm, and the other on her back, rubbing circles. "Aria, it's going to be okay."

Aria shook her head, looking up at Ella as large tears rolled down her face. "I'm never going to see him again. He's… he's…"

Ella gulped as she watched her daughter cry. She'd seen her through her fair share of nightmares and panic attacks in the last seven months, but she'd never seen her like this. This resounding emotion didn't even quantify to what it had been like when Ezra had been considering the job in New Orleans. Aria seemed literally broken at the thought of never seeing Ezra again, and Ella wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't sure there was anything she **could** do.

She looked up at Byron with pleading eyes, but Byron was just as dumbfounded as she was. In that moment, he was forced to admit to himself that, regardless of what he wanted to believe about Ezra Fitz, he was the only one who could fix Aria in this state.

_-  
Underneath my bed, there's a raincoat  
__Packed with scarves and books; just go look  
-_

When Ezra awoke, the sun had set on the city, and the room was in entire darkness. He was left lying on the floor, but there was tape wrapped around his hands and rope around his legs and feet to keep him from moving. He tentatively turned his head left and right, but best he could guess, they had left him alone in the room.

He squirmed backward a few inches, coughing when the chain on his neck tugged and made it harder to breathe. His back finally hit something, and he looked up. It appeared to be a table leg. Around the end of it was wrapped the other end of the chain.

He knocked into it, trying to make it come free. If he could get the other end of the chain free, then….well, he hadn't thought any further than that. One problem at a time, he kept telling himself as he bumped the table again and again. After a few hard knocks did nothing but irritate the myriad of bruises coating his back, he sighed, trying to rethink his plan.

He rolled over onto his knees, drowning cries on the cloth still stuffed in his mouth as his legs protested against the weight. The angle pulled on the chain, but if he kept his head close to the floor, he could breathe. That was where the problem ensued, though, given the fact that if he wanted to get the table leg off the floor, he would have to push the table up.

He took several long breaths and then pinned a piece of chain between his arm and chest and took in one more breath before discontinuing breathing. A second later, he drove his shoulder up against the top of the table as best he could. The movement pushed the table up and the chain came free.

Tears filled his eyes as he realized that he was actually free. Granted, he still had to get the ropes off his legs and the tape off his hands, but if he could do that, he could call 911.

His eyes darted around in the darkness, trying to see. The windows were covered to keep onlookers from seeing what they had been doing to him, and he couldn't stand to reach a lamp. He scrambled to sit. Once he was able to, he wedged his feet between his hands, trying to force the tape apart. His legs trembled, and his hands ached. His wrists were red and chafed badly with scabs from fighting against too-tight handcuffs. He whimpered as he pushed, but slowly, he could feel the tape peeling back and loosening. He bit down on the cloth in his mouth and pushed harder.

In all the struggling, the snap came as a surprise, and a sharp pain shot up his left arm. He knew well enough from having a broken wrist in the past that he'd broken it, but it wasn't a priority to him as he tugged harder. He bit down harder on the cloth in his mouth as he adjusted his arms and applied pressure to his broken arm to get his right hand free.

It came free a few moments later and he whimpered once more as he reached up and tugged the tape off his mouth. Once it was off, he tossed it onto the floor and spit the cloth in his mouth out, reaching up to pull it out. He unwrapped the rest of the tape on his left hand and then looked down at his legs. The knot was too intricate to do with one hand.

It occurred to him that Michael had left the scissors on the dresser, the last he'd seen. He crawled over to it and then reached up onto the counter and patted around on the top of the dresser. Just as his hands came to rest on the scissors, he heard a click. Panic rushed through him a moment later when the door opened. He looked up and gulped.

Light filled the room a moment later as Michael shut the door behind him. He looked down at Ezra and chuckled, shaking his head as he dropped the room key on the dresser. "Staging an escape, are you?"

Ezra's eyes fell. Michael had a gun in his belt loop, and even if he could get it from the older man, he didn't really think he'd be able to hold it well enough to shoot it. Michael walked over to him and grabbed the chain still wrapped around Ezra's neck and yanked it back, forcing Ezra to look up at him.

"Answer me, damn it."

Ezra gulped. "Y-y-yes."

Michael nodded. "Yeah." He looked up for a brief moment as he removed his gun from his jeans and settled it on the dresser. "Not to worry. It's not loaded…yet."

He turned and walked further into the room, yanking Ezra along. When they were about midway into the room, he turned and looked back at his son, and realized that Ezra had broken his wrist. He attached the chain to what Ezra realized was a bolt in the floor. As he looked around in the dim lighting, he realized that there were metal rings screwed into quite a few places around the room. In any other situation, he would've questioned it, but they were in the seediest hotel in Rosewood. He doubted that this wasn't the first time illegal activity had taken place here, or that it would be the last.

Michael came around to stand in front of Ezra and knelt down in front of him, picking up his arm where it was lying on Ezra's leg. The calmness of his touch made Ezra more nervous than anything in the past ever had. Michael had never been the kind of parent to do things with a kind touch.

"Figures you'd do something this stupid."

And there it was. Michael looked up at him, and the look in his eyes told Ezra that whatever was about to happen wasn't going to be good. Michael gripped a fistful of his hair and slammed Ezra's head down against the floor. He repeated the assault several times, until Ezra was plenty disoriented and his head was throbbing.

He stood up and shoved Ezra over. Ezra pushed up onto his knees and Michael walked around in front of him. He wrapped a hand around the chain and then drove his knee into Ezra's collarbone. He did it once again, and then a third time. All that kept Ezra upright as Michael's knee drilled into his shoulder was the chain wrapped around his neck. When the bone finally snapped under the weight of the kick, Michael released the chain and Ezra dropped against the floor. The pain in his arm was so blinding that even with his eyes clenched shut, all he could see was white.

Michael dropped down over his torso a few moments later, and Ezra's eyes shot open as his broken wrist became pinned under Michael's knee. He opened his mouth to scream, but he was quickly cut off when Michael stuffed a cloth in his mouth and covered it with a fresh piece of tape.

"There." He said angrily. The glare in his eyes was harsh enough to rival Ella Montgomery's. "And that'll stay there until I decide if I want to use it again."

Michael leaned forward, digging his knee harder into Ezra's leg as he pulled the chain on Ezra's neck until he found the lock. "Really, what were you thinking, trying to run? I thought the whole point you showed up here was out of a hero complex to protect that little whore you call a girlfriend."

Aria. Ezra breathed heavy breaths as Michael pulled the chain off his neck. As it fell to the floor, the circular bruises came to view. His adam's apple was heavily bruised, and it hurt to swallow. Still, somewhere in the world of wanting to hate his father and get away from him, there was the memory of Aria. Her beautiful hazel eyes and silky dark brown hair. The feathers she liked to wear inside her hair. How she would dress a certain way just to elicit a response out of him.

A moment later, the chain wrapped around his neck again, pulled even tighter than it had been before. He could still breathe, but it was tightened to the point that even the slightest movement would cut off his windpipe.

Michael stood and walked across the room, leaving Ezra stuck where he was. Ezra turned his head to look down at his arm. His shoulder throbbed to no end.

Michael returned a few moments later, and Ezra gulped when he saw a black nozzle come to rest on his shoulder. "You need to be punished for trying to run," Michael said.

The sound was almost nonexistent, but the pain was immediate. As soon as he pulled the trigger, blood splattered across Ezra's shoulder. Michael lifted the gun and then placed it against his shoulder about half an inch up from the first wound and fired it again. Ezra squirmed against his restraints, gagging and screaming as best he could from the pain.

Michael walked away again a few minutes later, leaving Ezra with three gunshot wounds in his shoulder. Ezra watched the older man as he stripped his clothing, and his resolve to protect the people he loved started to dribble away again.

Even after breaking his collarbone, sitting on his broken wrist, and shooting him in the shoulder, the man he called his father was sadistic enough to rape him again. As the older man knelt in front of him and yanked him forward, cutting off his air supply, Ezra prayed for death to come.


	5. Just Close Your Eyes, The Sun Is Going

_Chapter 5_

_Just Close Your Eyes, The Sun Is Going Down_

Ezra coughed wetly as he stared up at the white ceiling above him. Though the blinds weren't drawn, but he could still see that the sun was up. Three days he'd been stuck in this hell hole, and there didn't seem to be an end anywhere in sight.

The night before had been the worst yet. Even though Michael had been the only one there, it seemed as if the torture and pain was endless. Relief had come in the form of cocaine, just before sunrise. He had never been one to look at drugs as a way to solve problems, but given the fact that he couldn't move his yet again cuffed hands, and his own body was being used as a means to torture him, he was willing to take relief in whatever form it came in.

He looked down at his shoulder and grimaced. Among the black and blue bruises, the gunshot wounds left there were clear. He could also see a few feet away where the bullets had penetrated the floor. As the child of a cop, he'd always had that slight curiosity of what it was like to be shot, but after the night before, he never wanted to feel it again.

He could hear Michael chattering with someone across the room, and looked up at several of the guys he'd come to know in the past few days. He hated them all with a passion.

Michael walked over to him a moment later, and kicked him in the side. Ezra groaned, or at least attempted to. His voice was so badly strained that he couldn't make much noise anymore after screaming through most of the night before.

Michael knelt down beside him and yanked Ezra's head back by a handful of hair. The lack of a shower and proper hair care in the last few days had his curls running rampant. "I think you'll remember guys on their way here. Andy, Conner…"

Ezra heaved heavy breaths as he stared up at Michael. A moment later, he spit at the man. The saliva landed on Michael's nose, just below his eyes.

Michael reached up and wiped it off, glaring down at Ezra. A moment later, Michael pulled his gun out of the back of his jeans. Without any thinking or remorse, he pressed the nozzle into Ezra's shoulder and fired the gun.

"Do it again," Michael told him as he gripped Ezra's jaw in his free hand. "And I'll reconsider my choice to not kill your little whore."

Ezra glared at the older man. "Just kill me already. It's not like you're going to have any use for me when you run out of places to shoot me without causing major injury."

Michael yanked on the chain, cutting off Ezra's ability to breathe. "You know your place, and if you don't want me to **make sure** she's here tonight, you'll drop the attitude and remember what you were told."

Ezra gulped. Anything to protect Aria. He wouldn't let Michael touch her. With distaste in his mouth, he looked up at the guys that he could see across the room and then back at Michael. "How can I serve you?"

_-  
I am what you see, I am not what they say  
__But if I turn out to be, could you love me anyway  
-_

Aria threw her school bag on the couch and walked into the kitchen. She was shaking from the caffeine running through her system, but lack of sleep in the last three days had exhausted her. She wouldn't be able to properly sleep until she knew that Ezra was safe, and it seemed as if that was never going to happen at this rate.

She stopped in her tracks when she spotted Detective Wilden standing in the kitchen, talking to Dianne. She looked up at Aria and waved her over. Aria walked over to them and forced a smile on her face.

"Detective Wilden," she said with a curt nod.

Detective Wilden nodded to her. "Ms. Montgomery."

"So how do we proceed," Dianne asked.

Detective Wilden looked at Aria nervously for a few moments before he looked back at Dianne. "Best I can tell, he's probably planning to move your son in the next few days, and we want to stop him before that happens. We're planning to move tomorrow around four PM. That's been the one time during the day they've been consistent with leaving, and it'll be a lot easier to take them down with a second unit, and there are less people in the hotel."

Aria looked back and forth between Dianne and Detective Wilden. "Why not do it today?"

Detective Wilden looked down at her. "We can't-"

"You can **do **anything you want!" She cried.

"No," Detective Wilden argued with her. "We cant, Ms. Montgomery! We need more manpower in order to keep both of these situations from being turned over on us and people getting kidnapped or murdered in the process. However, we can't just reach out to anyone, given that this involves the NYPD."

Aria whimpered as she sunk down onto a stool. She looked up at Detective Wilden. "Leaving him there… L-leaving him with them for another day-"

Detective Wilden sighed and nodded. "I know. And I would do anything to change the situation, but if we go in now, without knowing who's there and without having a proper team put together, people could get killed. **Ezra **could get killed."

"So-"

"So sit tight," Detective Wilden told her. He looked down at his watch and turned it over on his wrist so that he could see the time. "I've got a meeting in half an hour with the Brookhaven police force. With any luck, they'll agree to help us."

He looked back and forth between Aria and Dianne before grabbing his jacket off a stool. "I'll see myself out."

He walked around the island and headed out of the house, leaving Aria and Dianne standing there alone. Aria looked down at her hands, and picked at the chipped polish on her nails.

"It's going to get better," Dianne said soothingly. "Have a little faith."

Aria looked up at her, reaching up to wipe tears off her face. "Every time something happens that manages to make me laugh, or something makes me feel **anything**, I want to call him and tell him about it. But then when I go to do it, I remember that I can't, because he won't answer."

Dianne nodded. "I know. Just remember that he'll be home soon."

_-  
Maybe someday you'll ask for me by name, but not today  
-_

Aria shook nervously as she watched Dianne across the room, talking on her phone. Four days without Ezra had been hell. It was worse than anything she'd ever dealt with, having him gone in the past, because she **knew **he was suffering. She couldn't even let herself begin to wonder or think about how badly because she knew it would eat her up inside.

Dianne walked over to her, tucking her phone into the pocket of the khaki's she was wearing. Aria had no doubt that Ezra had picked up the habit of wearing them from her.

"Everything is going to happen in a matter of minutes, but it may be a while before you actually hear anything." She said. "They won't let me any further than the emergency room at the hospital, but I don't know how long they'll have him after that. It all depends on how badly he's hurt."

Aria shook as she bit on her knuckles, trembling with nervous energy. "Is it at all possible that he…he might be-"

"Alright?" Dianna asked grimly. "For your sake, I'd **love **to say yes, but I'd sooner wager that Michael would leave town without him."

She pulled down a strap on the bulletproof vest she was being ordered to wear and then grabbed her bag off the counter and looked over at Aria. "Just sit tight. Try and keep yourself preoccupied as best as possible, and don't spend every other second looking at your phone. You'll sooner drive yourself mad."

Aria gulped and nodded, though it was clear between the two that the logic of Aria keeping herself calm and distracted while she waited for information was very unlikely.

Detective Wilden walked up to them and turned to Dianne. "We're leaving shortly. With the schedule locked down, we should be able to take the crowd in without a problem. We're going to have to be quick and seamless with your ex-husband, though. If he has even the slightest inkling-"

"I was **married** to him," Dianne said angrily to Wilden. "I know how he functions. Your best chance is probably ten minutes after they've left. He'll be most vulnerable then, and if you go in any sooner or any later, he'll have the chance to kill my son, and I promise you, he'll take it. He'd rather no one have Ezra, than him."

Detective Wilden nodded. "I'll secure the room and then when he's cuffed, I'll bring you in."

"No," Dianna disagreed. "You won't. I'll go in when you do. Like I said, I was married to Michael. I know his every move, even before he knows it. How else do you think I knew you could help?"

Wilden rolled his eyes, obviously not willing to believe she had done it all without any help. He looked down at his watch and then placed his hand between her shoulder blades authoritatively. "We need to go."

Dianne shrugged away his hand, but walked out of the Montgomery house and into the black sedan that was sitting outside the house. She was settled into the back seat and buckled in, staring out the window. There was silence as the car started and headed across town. Wilden only spoke once, to tell her that the five men whom had been at Michaels beck and call had been apprehended. Four had been killed in a shootout, with three cops injured and one dead, while the last one was being brought in. They arrived at the hotel, and Wilden met up with three plainly dressed officers while Dianne waited for them to give her the go-ahead. The only downside to being with them was that if Michael somehow saw her, he'd kill Ezra and get away before they even got the chance to catch him.

Wilden walked around the Sudan to the passenger side and tossed her a coat and a purple wig from a bag. "Put these on. You and I are going to walk up the stairs, and then my partner is going to follow. You'll wait on the right side of the door, and then when it's safe to come in, tend to your son. Sad truth is, if he manages to inflict any major wound, it may take the ambulance too long to get here, and you'll know better what to do in a sudden situation."

Dianne adjusted the wig on her head, rolling her eyes. This was hardly the way she wanted to handle such a situation, and less than what she agreed with. She knew well the way to get things done in New York, but she wasn't in New York. This was Rosewood, where they handled things in an entirely different way altogether.

"When I wave you over, get out and come to me." He said. Dianne nodded.

He walked away, and she sat waiting for his notice. When it came, she walked over to him, reminding herself keep her thoughts focused on the present, and what absolutely needed to be done. There was a knife in her boot, though Wilden didn't know about it. She carried it for multiple reasons; her safety only being one of them. More than once, she'd been involved in field work that required quick thinking and tools she carried only on herself.

They walked up the stairway to the second floor of hotel rooms and then she stepped past the doorway and leaned against the wall, taking several deep breaths as she closed her eyes. She wouldn't her thoughts stray to what _might _happen, or what _possibly _happened.

"Ready?" Wilden asked when she opened her eyes. She nodded.

Wilden nodded to the guys across from him, and they burst through the doorway. Wilden followed after them, and Dianne walked into the room. Her eyes flitted back and forth between Michael and Ezra. Seeing her son with a chain wrapped around his throat made her want to kill Michael, but Detective Wilden stood beside her, reminding her that Ezra was more important at the moment.

They both fell to their knees beside him, and Wilden dropped his jacket over Ezra's exposed abdomen, turning to the frantic man lying on the floor. There was tape over his mouth and the way he kept bucking against the restraints kept cutting off his ability to breathe. His hands were also cuffed tightly.

Wilden leaned down over Ezra, turning his head towards him as Dianne rifled through her bag for things that she could use.

"Ezra, you're safe now. No one's going to hurt you," He said, blue staring into blue as he looked Ezra clear in the eyes. He kept his expression soft, careful not to scare him more than he already was.

"You're stupid to think that," Michael growled as he struggled under the men cuffing him.

Dianne's eyes drifted from the gunshot wounds on Ezra's shoulder, to her ex-husband. Before she could even think to stop herself, blind rage took over her, and she pulled the knife hidden in her boot out. It was a quick movement, and then the three inch blade was imbedded in his shoulder.

"You stupid bitch!" He yelled, struggling even more so from the pain. He laughed after a minute. "See you in the holding cell."

Dianne seethed as she shoved the knife farther into his shoulder. "Somehow I doubt that." She looked over at Wilden. "I'm sorry, what happened here?"

He shrugged. "I didn't see anything. All I heard was a woman defending herself." His attention was locked on Ezra as he pulled a key from his belt loop and reached for Ezra's cuffed hands. They were badly cut up with scabs. His whole body seemed to be covered in cuts, and very few of them appeared to be superficial. He slipped the key into the small hole on the left cuff and turned it, keeping his other hand gently on Ezra's forearm. He knew from experience on the job what a broken arm looked like.

Once the metal fell from Ezra's wrist, Wilden gently let it drop against Ezra's torso before he reached for the other cuff.

"He needs gauze on his wrists," he told Dianne.

"I'll get to it in a second," she murmured, tugging a set of keys from Michael's back left pocket.

She wanted to murder Michael as she flipped through the keys until she found the right one. It was smaller than the rest, and fit into the lock keeping Ezra from being able to properly breathe.

She slipped the key into the small hole and turned it. The lock popped up. She pulled it free from the chain links and then tossed it across the room before pulling the chain off of Ezra's neck. She wasted no time reaching up to pull the tape over his mouth off. She pulled gently, but the cry that Ezra emitted when she started to pull it off kept her from continuing to pull slowly. She tugged off the majority of it and tossed it to the side. Ezra lifted his head up off the floor, putting most of his weight on his right side as he coughed, trying to spit the cloth stuffed into his mouth, out.

Wilden pulled it out and handed it over to one of the officers who walked into the room, who dropped it into an evidence bag. "Are the EMTs here yet?"

"Two minutes out," the officer replied.

Dianne looked over Ezra's body, but there was so much bruising and matted blood, that it was hard to see injuries. "What's hurt worst," she asked him.

Ezra's eyes darted around the room, back and forth from Dianne and Darren, to the doorway where cops were streaming in.

She placed a hand on his cheek and turned his head to look at her. "**Grover.** Where does it hurt the most?"

Ezra looked up at her, caught by the nickname. He'd had it since he was a kid, because when his mother had gotten him the stuffed cookie monster toy, he had proceeded to tell her that Grover was his favorite muppet from Sesame Street. She'd eventually gotten him the right toy, but the nickname had stuck long after.

Ezra gulped, and winced at the pain it caused in his throat. "Everywhere. B-but m-m-my leg. He…"

She looked down at his leg and then moved Wilden's jacket aside. Ezra had his hand pressed into a long wound.

"Femoral artery," Ezra rasped. "He knew."

"Can you lie flat on your back?" Wilden asked as he removed his belt. The cut was high on the leg, but if they could elevate it and slow blood flow, there was no reason they couldn't keep the cut from killing him.

Ezra shook his head. "Knife."

Dianne clenched her fists tightly before turning to her bag. She pulled a towel and a bottle of water out before pulling the water onto the towel and gently wiped the cloth against his beaten body. The dried blood flaked off under the gentle pressure of the clothe wiping against his skin, and after a minute, she was able to see where the major wounds are. She pulled packages of gauze out and ripped them open, pressing them into his shoulder and chest as Wilden tugged his belt tight against Ezra's leg, cutting off the blood supply.

Dianne moved around him and looked over his arm, from his fingertips up to his collarbone. It was so badly broken, she wasn't sure he could actually feel much besides pain. She shook her head and then looked up as EMTs filled the doorway. They were pulling along a stretcher.

As the three of them walked over - two men and a woman, she and Detective Wilden were pushed to the side, though she called orders over to them as they pressed thick packing gauze into Ezra's leg and covered as many of his more serious wounds as they could before moving him off the floor and onto the stretcher.

The female EMT looked back at Dianne as she draped a blanket over Ezra. One of the other EMTs had already started an IV line for him. "Are you riding in the ambulance?"

Dianne nodded.

"Then let's go," she said.

_-  
I can't hear what you're saying but I like everything you're talking  
-_

Upon arriving to the hospital, what Dianne told Aria rang true. She was able to follow Ezra through to the emergency room, but he wasn't in there more than ten minutes before they took him up to the OR. After that, all communication ceased, even though she was promised updates every few hours.

By dusk, the waiting room outside the OR was filled by Aria, Ella, Hardy, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer. But the most surprising arrival was when Byron turned up and then proceeded to ask if they knew anything.

One by one, parents dribbled in, looking for Emily, Hanna, and Spencer. Emily left around 10 PM when Pam turned up. None of her friends parents knew about her relationship with Ezra, which only served to add to their confusion as to why they were at the hospital, worried about their former teacher. Emily left after Aria agreed to call once she knew something.

Ashley showed up not long after, and walked into the waiting room with Wilden. Her reaction was similar to Pam's, if only slightly dulled by Wilden's presence. There was the slightest hint that maybe Ashley knew a little more than she was letting on, but she didn't say anything as Hanna hugged Aria and then said goodbye to her.

Spencer's parents never turned up, but they were both out of town. The most she got was a phone call from Melissa, asking if she was okay and when she would be home. Spencer only responded that she didn't know, and that she was at the hospital with Aria.

By midnight, Aria was curled up in a hospital chair, holding a fresh mocha latte that her father had gotten for her in one hand while her head rested on Spencer's shoulder, next to her. She was thoroughly exhausted, and was ready to curl up and fall asleep.

"Time's it?" She murmured as she opened her eyes and looked up at Spencer.

Spencer sighed and stretched her arms and legs out in front of her before grabbing her phone from her lap. "Half past twelve."

"If I thought you'd listen, I'd tell you to go home and sleep," Dianne said to Aria.

Aria shook her head, lifting her cup of coffee to her lips. She took a long drink from it. "Not until I know he's okay."

Silence hovered over the room once more, and Aria rested her head back on Spencer's shoulder, closing her eyes. She dozed off, and the area seemed to filled with only the sounds of breathing.

Just after one AM, a doctor dressed in dark blue scrubs walked into the room wearily. He looked up at Dianne. "Mrs. Fitzgerald?"

She nodded, sharing a quick glance at Ella before she stood. The doctor walked over to her and sat down on the coffee table across from her. It was clear that he was exhausted.

"I'm Parker Brody. Ezra is recovery right now," he said, rubbing his hand over his eyes. He took a long sip from the coffee in his hand, before speaking again. "The easiest fix was his leg. I'd like him to stay off of it until the stitches can be taken out, but he should be fine in ten days or so, walking-wise. He's got a multitude of stitches all over his body that will need proper care. What worried me was his arm. I gather that you know how clavicle injuries work-"

"Yes," she said quickly, cutting him off.

He nodded. "Given that his injuries were so extensive, we couldn't be sure if the cut on his shoulder was caused when the injury happened, or if it was caused by something else, so he's got several screws and plates holding the bone together. The gunshot wounds themselves did very little internal damage. His wrist was badly broken, however, and required surgery.

"There was also internal bleeding in his chest and abdominal wall. He'll have to avoid any harsh contact for a while; no exercise, contact sports, and things of the like."

He pressed his lips together, pausing before he spoke last. "To be honest, my biggest worries were the stab wound to his chest, the blunt force on his kidneys, and the knife forced inside his rectum. The wound to his chest was so deep and close to the heart that if it had been just a few millimeters over, he would've bled out at the scene." He paused again, swallowing a thick gulp. "Before the knife, there was extensive tearing and bruising to his rectum. We've got him settled with a temporary colostomy, and I'd like to keep it that way for a few weeks."

He took another drink from his coffee, rubbing his eyes again. "To end on a lighter note, his kidneys, while injured, should heal on their own. We're going to keep a close watch on **all **his injuries, but given the fact that he made it through surgery, there's no reason that you're son shouldn't heal and be perfectly fine, with physical therapy to mend his arm."

Tears of relief flooded both Dianne and Ella's eyes. Dr. Brody smiled solemnly at them. "I'll take you to see him if you'd like. We've got him up in the ICU at the moment, but if all goes well, he should be able to be moved to a regular room some time tomorrow."

Dianne nodded, standing from her seat. She followed Dr. Brody through the halls and into the intensive care unit. Most of the rooms were closed off and lights were out because people were sleeping, but the lights in the room at the end of the hall were on, though they were dim.

As she suspected, he led her to the room, and opened the glass door. They walked inside and Dianne walked over to the bed. Ezra's left hand was resting near his right shoulder in a sling that was designed to help his collarbone heal. His wrist was heavily wrapped in a temporary cast, and his upper arm was held to his body with a swathe. His other hand was wrapped heavily in gauze from the cuts on his wrists and hands.

She slipped her fingers inside his palm and rubbed soothing circles over the back of his hand. Seeing him cleaned off and bandaged made his injuries so much more apparent. The bruise around his neck was clearer than it had been since it had started to form, with the shape of the links clear on his throat. There were cuts on his face as well from being hit, and his bottom lip was cut up. She could see that there were new stitches there as well.

Ezra exhaled a soft breath and shivered. Dianne looked up at the doctor. "Can he get another blanket?" She paused and looked down at the one draped on top of him. "Actually, can he get a few? The kid sleeps under a mountain of duvets."

Dr. Brody chuckled and nodded. "I'll have the nurse see if we can't find him something a little thicker and warmer."

As he turned and walked out of the room, Ezra's eyes fluttered open. He looked up at Dianne, and attempted to make a sound, but air merely passed through his lips without the slightest squeak.

"Mom?" He whispered.

She smiled ruefully down at him. "Shh. Your voice is probably gone."

"_Whatimesit_?" He asked wearily.

"About one thirty," she said, looking up at the clock on the wall.

The nurse walked into the room a moment later and smiled at them as she laid a blanket at Ezra's feet, and then proceeded to unfold it so that he got the maximum amount of heat. Once she had unfolded it, he shifted slightly under the blankets, trying to get as much skin under them as possible.

"Aria…" he whispered.

Dianne nodded. "She's here. Do you want to see her?"

Ezra nodded wearily.

Dianne leaned down and kissed his forehead before walking out of the room. She headed back to the waiting room, where Ella was talking quietly with Aria. Aria looked up when she spotted Dianne.

"He's very tired right now," she explained. "But he wants to see you."

Aria pushed up out of her chair and followed Dianne down the hall and through several more until they reached the ICU. They were nearing Ezra's room when Aria stopped off at the nurses station. Dianne smiled, remembering that she'd brought a Grover stuffed toy to the hospital. The hospital had put it through their wash and then she'd convinced one of the nurses to put it in a warming cabinet until Ezra woke up.

The same nurse nodded as Aria explained the situation, and then retrieved the small blue stuffed toy from the cabinet. She handed it over the counter, and Dianne directed Aria to the room.

Aria looked back at her for a brief moment before she walked into the room. Ezra was conning one of the nurses into yet another blanket. She smiled at Aria as they passed each other, and Aria walked over to the bed.

Ezra groaned quietly, trying to get comfortable in his inevitable discomfort as she walked up to the side of the bed. Even for being a full grown man, he looked so small and vulnerable in the bed. Aria still held the Grover doll against her chest in her right arm as she dropped her left and placed her hand in his. She said nothing as he opened his eyes and looked up at her.

"Hey," he whispered, looking up at her.

Aria smiled down at him, trying to swallow the hard knot forming in her throat as she looked at him and took in his myriad of injuries. There was a knot tight in her throat. "Hey, hon."

Ezra reached up and tugged on the foot of the Grover doll. "What's this?"

Aria tried to laugh at the statement, but as she did, tears filled her eyes. "I, um, I- I remembered how you told me about your mom mixing up the muppets when you were a kid, a-and I thought…" She shook her head, looking down at her feet. "I don't know what I thought. I should've realized it would remind you…"

Ezra gave the slightest smile; anything more than just barely upturning the corners of his mouth hurt like hell. "It reminds me of good things," he whispered, curling his fingers over hers. She whimpered as she held his hand.

"I brought him for you," she said softly. She handed over the doll, and rested him in the crook of Ezra's arm.

The nurse returned with the new blanket and rested it over Ezra before exiting the room once more and leaving them alone. Even though she didn't want to leave him, Aria yawned. Ezra still smiled at her.

"How can you smile right now?" She whimpered, sinking down into the chair next to his bed. Ezra still held her hand in his.

"Because you're safe and alive," he told her softly, but there was clear conviction behind them. "And I'm alive to see it."

Tears streamed down Aria's face at his statement, reminding her that he'd done all of this to protect her.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," he said quietly.

They both yawned. Aria laughed quietly, and then yawned yet again.

"Stay," he murmured, pulling up the top blanket with his pinky.

Aria shook her head. "I shouldn't-"

"I want you to," Ezra said back.

Aria stared at him with trepidation for a few moments before she finally reached down and pulled her boots off her feet and moved up onto the blankets. She was careful of his IV lines and many other wires and tubes as she laid down next to him. Ezra loosely wrapped an arm around her, and Aria held Grover tightly between them.

Less than two minutes later, the exhaustion that had assaulted the both of them for days took over once more, and they were fast asleep.


	6. Come Wake Me Up

_Chapter 6_

_Come Wake Me Up_

Aria lifted her head up off the bed and yawned, attempting to stretch her limbs in the cramped bed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. The screen lit up and the time glared at her in bright white font. 4:30 AM.

She pushed her left hand down on the bed and moved up off of it, groaning softly as her limbs stretched from the movement.

Ezra's voice strained as he turned his head and opened his eyes. Upon him looking up at her, Aria could tell he was drugged by the glassy look in his eyes. "Where're going?" He slurred wearily.

"It's almost five AM," she murmured. "I have to go find my mom. I was only supposed to come in here for a few minutes."

"Are you coming back?"

Aria shrugged. "Maybe. If not, I'll come back later."

She turned to head towards the door, but he grabbed her hand. She turned and looked back at him. He had the same look in his eyes that she'd seen when he told her about Michael. "He's not here," she murmured, rubbing her thumb soothingly over the back of his hand. "You'll be okay."

He let her pull her fingers free from his hand, and then she walked out of the room and made her way through the maze of hallways until she found her way back to the waiting room. Ella was sitting in a chair next to Dianne, and they were talking softly.

Ella looked up at Aria, surprised. "You're awake."

"You knew I was asleep?" Aria asked, rubbing her eyes.

Dianne chuckled. "When you didn't come back, we went searching."

"We were going to head back to the house for a few hours," Ella said. "Get some rest and come back around eight. Do you want to come?"

Aria considered the option nervously for a moment. She knew Ezra was safe, but she wasn't sure if he would see it that way. However, she hadn't really done much to take care of herself in the last few days, and she knew she'd be lying to herself if she said she didn't want to crawl in her bed for a few hours and sleep.

"Sure," she said after a moment.

Dianne nodded. "I'm just going to pop in on Ezra and make sure he's alright. I'll be out in a few minutes."

She walked away from Aria and Ella, and headed through the halls until she found herself standing in front of the door to Ezra's room.

There was a rage inside of her that she had kept bottled up for days, and she desperately wanted to let it loose on someone. She was a conservative New York woman, and knew better than to cause a scene, but seeing her oldest son lying in a hospital bed covered in a multitude of injuries enraged her. She wanted Michael to suffer in the worst ways for doing this to her baby.

She watched as Ezra tugged on a blanket lying on top of him. He grimaced and pulled the blanket tighter up his body.

She pushed the button next to the door, and it slid open. Ezra looked over at her, clearly frustrated.

"You okay, kid?" She asked as she walked over to the bed.

Ezra shrugged, continuing to tug on the blankets. "Fine." His voice was badly strained, barely making much of a sound above a whisper. "What's up?"

"We're gonna head back to the house for a few hours. You should sleep."

Ezra sighed, tugging on the blankets once more. "Can't reach the morphine drip."

Dianne looked over the bed, and then spotted the cord lying over the edge of the bottom of the bed. She leaned over and grabbed it and then settled it in his right hand. "Try and sleep. I'll be back before you know it."

_-  
I never meant to wither; I wanted to be tall  
__Like a fool, left the river, and watched my branches fall  
-_

Just after 8 AM, Dianne stood in the waiting room near the ICU, waiting for news as to whether Ezra had been moved to the medical floor yet. She stared down at the screen of her newly purchased phone. She knew that they needed to get in touch with a lawyer.

"Mrs. Fitzgerald?"

She turned and tucked her phone into her pocket, looking up at the doctor in front of her. It was the same man from the night before. "Dr. Brody. Where's my son?"

"We've moved him up to the medical floor, but there's something I wanted to talk with you about first." He said tentatively.

"Alright," she replied hastily. "What?"

He exhaled a sigh. "When your son was brought in, we ran a tox screen. We rushed him into surgery so fast last night that there wasn't much time to stop and look at it, and last night, it was pushed to the side. When I came in this morning, I got a look at it."

He turned a coffee cup in his hands, shaking his head ruefully as he looked down at the ground and then back up at her. "Ma'am, your son came in with cocaine in his system."

She nearly dropped the cup of coffee she was holding as information hit her full force. She knew that Michael played dirty, and would probably do whatever he could to keep Ezra quiet, but she didn't know if she was stupid for thinking that he would drug Ezra sooner, or for not considering it at all.

"He doesn't do drugs," she said. "He's…" She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "He's a recovering addict."

Dr. Brody's jaw slackened just the slightest. "How long has he been clean?"

Dianne turned the watch on her wrist, trying yet again to keep herself calm. "A little over six years. He was an addict for two. He had treatment, got into NA meetings, and when he got clean, he stayed that way."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Dr. Brody asked.

Dianne nodded. "I know my son when he's on drugs. He's been clean for years."

Dr. Brody nodded. "Well I'll leave a note in his file, and make sure his medication intake is monitored." He paused for a moment and then looked up at her again. "Given the fact that he's going to need help getting around for a few weeks, I'd advise him getting back into meetings as well."

The conversation ended there, and Dianne followed the doctor through the halls. He lead her one floor down and through another series of halls. Once again, Ezra's room was right next to the nurses station, but she didn't know if that was to be safe, or if it would end up being a nuisance, given that the noise level would probably get louder during the day.

She walked through the sliding glass door and walked over to Ezra's bed. He was fiddling with the remote resting in his lap, flipping through the channels on the TV. He looked up at her as she walked in.

"Hey." He whispered.

"Hey kiddo," she said back to him, looking up at the TV. "How're you doing?"

"Well I'm drugged up, so mellow and loopy." He muttered, darting a glance up at her before looking back at the TV. "Hardy called right after they moved me in here. He's comin' up in a few hours." He sighed and dropped the remote on the bed, looking up at Dianne. "They said I can wear a loose sweatshirt. Can you bring up some thin clothes?"

Dianne nodded. "I've got a bag down in the car anyway. I'll go get it when he shows up."

His stomach gurgled, and his feigned a gag.

"What?" Dianne asked. "Are the meds making you nauseated?"

"No," Ezra replied. He reached over and picked up a tube that was about an inch in diameter. He was nauseated again as liquid rushed down and through it. "This damn thing. If I wanted to know what food looked like before it was in the toilet, I'd have gone to med school."

Dianne chuckled. "Oh, kiddo. I'd tell you it grosses me out too, but when you're a doctor, you see everything, so…"

Ezra let go of the tube and tugged his blankets up over the multitude running in and out of his body. He rubbed his hand up and down his arm before reaching down and grabbing the pump between his legs and pushing the button on it.

"Something wrong?" Dianne asked as she settled on the chair next to him.

"My arm hurts like hell," he said.

"It's badly broken, babe."

He stared down at a spot on the wall on the opposite side of the room. "You know, I've barely slept in a week, and been pushed and kicked around, but I'm bored and I'd give anything to get up and go for a walk right now."

Dianne frowned, running her hand down his bicep. "Your legs probably wouldn't even hold you up. Would you settle for a wheelchair?"

Ezra shook his head, looking back up at the TV. "No. Just forget it."

The morning progressed in the same manner, and Ezra said very little. He didn't really pay much attention to anything, and Dianne was no stranger to the far-away look in his eyes. Eventually, he dozed off into a restless sleep.

_-  
And when the trumpet sounds, when the good lord calls my name  
__Oh I'm gonna be with you, oh I'm gonna be with you  
-_

Ashley Marin gulped as she buttoned the top button on her blazer and knocked on the door in front of her. She'd gone looking for Detective Wilden the minute she'd been released on her lunch break, but when she got to the station, they had sent her across town to the sleaziest hotel in Rosewood. She half-expected him to be undercover, so she was quite surprised when she showed up and they directed her to the second floor, where a door was wide open, and there was crime scene tape everywhere.

She settled back on her feet, unable to actually stand in front of the door, as there was crime scene tape that ran from the railing on her left, into the motel room.

The door opened a moment later, and Darren looked at her, startled for a moment. "Something wrong?"

She stared at him for several long moments. "I want you to leave the Montgomery family alone. They've been close with Hanna and I for a while, and the last thing Ella needs is for you to screw around with her like you did with me."

Darren stared at her for another moment before he raised an eyebrow slightly. "I didn't go to the Montgomery's. They came to me."

"Why would they do that?" She asked, slightly frustrated. This man had tried multiple times to drag their daughters down and through the mud.

He looked outside the room, back and forth down both sides of the open walkway. "Off the record? I'd imagine it has something to do with the fact that their daughter is dating her former teacher."

Ashley's jaw fell slack as she stared at him. She couldn't believe that he had just said that. Aria would never…would she? And if she did, Hanna would know better than to keep it a secret. She would've told her. Wouldn't she?

"That's not true," she insisted. "Hanna would've told me."

"Hey, momma bear," Darren said. "I'm just saying what I saw." He sighed, rubbing his eyes. He was physically exhausted after the past few days. He'd had little to no sleep every night, and now that the case was actually moving forward, it was only going to get worse.

"I'm gonna kill Hanna," she murmured under her breath. She looked back up at Wilden. "Thanks."

She turned to leave, but he called her name, and she turned back to look at him.

"Momma bear." He shook his head. "Don't….don't lay it on too thick. The Fitz guy, the one who was kidnapped… It's not good."

Ashley turned back and walked over to Wilden. She pointed a finger at him, intent on giving him a piece of her mind, but as her eyes fell to the floor behind him, she saw a generous-sized circle that had obviously been a puddle of blood before it dried up. "Oh god." She looked back at him, with a thousand questions burning on her tongue, but somehow knowing asking any of them wasn't going to make her feel better.

She dropped her hand and her shoulders slipped. She was about to turn and walk away, but shook her head at the last moment before she did. "Don't hurt them."

With that, she turned on her heel and walked down the steps at the end of the walkway and over to her car. She got into it and buckled herself in before starting the car.

She drove back to her house and dropped her purse on the kitchen counter as she yelled Hanna's name. A few moments later, footsteps filled the hallway above her, and then continued down the steps until Hanna was on the first floor. She walked into the kitchen a few moments later.

"What's up?" Hanna asked somberly.

Ashley gripped the counter as she stared at her daughter. "Why didn't you tell me that your best friend is dating her teacher?"

Hanna's expression fell, and Ashley knew she'd caught her.

"Hanna!" She yelled. "This is dangerous! Not to **mention **illegal!"

"She loves him, mom!" Hanna cried. "And he loves her too!"

"You can't know that," Ashley argued.

Hanna shook her head. "I can."

Ashley's brow furrowed. "Hanna-"

Hanna sighed. "Six months ago, her parents told them they couldn't be together, when they told them. They told Aria and Ezra-"

Her voice broke off at Ashley's glare. Hanna rolled her eyes. "C'mon mom!"

Ashley sighed.

"Anyway,…" Hanna shook her head. "You haven't seen how they are **without **each other. I **know **all the stigmas and the discussion attached to relationships like that, but Aria and Ezra aren't **like **that. They love each other, and there isn't anything either of them want more than to be together."

"It's not right, Hanna," she argued.

Hanna shrugged. "Maybe not, but when two people love each other, why should we stand in their way? If Aria was a year older, no one would even care."

"But people **do **care, Hanna!" Ashley said angrily. "This is a small town. And all current situations aside, Aria has been your friend for years! People assume things about people who spend time with others who are involved in a scandal!"

"So let them assume!" Hanna argued back. "It wouldn't be true!"

Ashley huffed. "Even so! If the guys who hurt him knew you were affiliated with him, they could've hurt you too!"

Hanna shook her head, sighing. "I don't know what else to say. I'm sorry? I didn't know he was going to end up having a psycho father. He certainly didn't seem that way from the second row of junior English."

Ashley's shock value heightened as Hanna mentioned Michael. Her expression changed as her jaw fell. "His father did…Oh my god. The motel-"

"You went to the motel!?" Hanna cried. "Y-…you saw?"

Ashley shook her head. "I saw more than I ever wanted to. And it's hard to imagine the man I had a parent-teacher conference with eleven months ago in that room."

_-  
Said goodbye, turned around, and you were gone, gone, gone  
-_

Ezra stared down at the tube running out of his body, covered thickly in bandages. It was currently processing out what had started out as an eighth slice of an apple, and two small pieces of muskmelon. Food wasn't high on his priority list at the moment, given that the last time he had eaten it, he hadn't been allowed to touch it.

He looked down at his left arm, and stared down at the bandaging that was wrapped around his forearm.

_They were in a frenzy around him, running about the room and trying to pack everything up. He'd heard something about cops, but wasn't sure what exactly. His head hurt too much to think. _

"_Are we just gonna leave him?" One of the guys asked. _

_Michael walked away from the fireplace, holding something in his hands. "In a few minutes. Pete, come here." _

_The biggest guy walked over to him, and Ezra cried into his gag as the man's knee dug into his shoulder. "Yeah, boss?"_

"Just hold him down," Michael said. He grabbed Ezra by his jaw and turned his head so that Ezra was looking at him. "This is what you'll be stuck with for the rest of your life."

_Ezra looked down at the large, bright orange branding iron. He began to squirm and cry louder as Michael turned it and lowered it down, until the iron pressed onto his arm. Ezra screamed at the top of his lungs, even as the chain cut off his air supply while Michael held down the iron. _

_He brought it up after a long minute, and Ezra sobbed loudly as he looked over at the words burned into his skin. _

_**Dog. Whore. Bitch.**_

_And then in smaller letters below it all: **Property of Michael Fitzgerald**_

"_Cuff him," MIchael demanded to one of the guys. _

"Hey, kiddo," Dianne said softly. "Where's your head at?"

Ezra looked up at her and shrugged. "How did you not see the burns?"

She shook her head. "It was ignorance on my part. I was trying to be quick and assess what could kill you in those few minutes. And there was so much blood everywhere. Even on your body. It was hard to see what was serious and what could be left for the hospital."

He looked back down at his arm. "It's always going to be there now. He'll always own me."

"He does not **OWN **you," Dianne said angrily as she placed her hand gently on his cheek. Ezra winced under her touch. It wasn't the way she touched him, but rather the fact that she was angry and touching his face at all. It reminded him of Michael scolding him and calling him a dog. Like he needed to be grabbed by his face and be told directly.

Dianne pulled her hand away. "Grover, I'm so sorry I let him do this to you."

"**I **let him do this to me," Ezra whispered back.

Dianne frowned, shaking her head. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and checked the message that had come in before looking back up at him. "I'll be right back."

She walked out of the room, and stopped when she entered the hallway. Ella was coming up from the waiting room.

"Are you here to visit Ezra?" She asked.

Ella nodded. "Unless he's too tired. I can come back-"

Dianne shook her head. "No, no. He's awake. And I think he could use the view of a fresh face."

Ella chuckled. She and Dianne passed each other, and she walked into the room. Ezra looked up at her, surprised to see her.

"What's up?" He asked. "Aria?"

Ella shook her head. "She's at home, asleep. She's going back to school tomorrow."

Ezra nodded. "So what're you doing here?"

Ella tucked her hands into her pockets. "A few weeks ago, you came to see me at the high school. You said we used to be friends. And you were right."

Ezra sighed, turning his head to look up at the TV. It was muted. "So what? You feel pity so now we should be friends? I've never taken a friend who just wants to be nice so they can feel good about themselves. I'm not about to change that now."

"Ezra-"

He whipped his head back and looked at her angrily. "You haven't treated me like a normal person in over eight months. When you thought I was dating Spencer, you told me to get out of town. When you found out it was **Aria **I was seeing? You told me to leave and never come back. Your husband threatened to have me put in jail!"

"Which I **never **agreed with," Ella said back angrily. "I knew that if we pushed you two, there was a chance you two would do something stupid, like run off and get married, or knocked up."

"You really think I'd be that stupid to let her do something like that?!" He yelled. His vocal chords ached with the strain. "You know, what, don't answer that. It just goes to prove how lowly you think of me!"

"I don't think lowly of you!" She yelled back. "I think if you gave yourself half a chance, you could do anything you want, whether it's continuing to teach, or writing books that change someone's life! I think you're **both **capable of amazing things, and I'm _**afraid **_of what could happen if your relationship became public knowledge!"

Ezra glared at her angrily for several minutes longer before he huffed. And then she surprised him. He smiled, and even chuckled a little.

"What the hell!?" She asked.

"You didn't treat me like you're walking around on eggshells by being in here." Ezra replied. "It's refreshing. And given that I've lived though it before, it'd be nice if it stayed that way."

Ella couldn't help but chuckle. "You're an idiot. But I get it."

Ezra nodded, looking down at the floor. A moment later, he looked up at her. "Can you step out for a few moments? I- um-…"

Ella's brow furrowed confused. "What?"

"It's just- I- I- I need-…" He shook his head, and his face flushed a bright red as Ella's eyes dropped to a bag resting by the edge of the bed. It began to fill with urine."

Ella gulped, but reminded herself to brush off any sense of embarrassment she felt. She knew that if she got embarrassed, then it would only worsen how he was currently feeling. "So, do you regularly relieve yourself in front of company?"

Ezra looked up at her, slightly surprised at her comment. "Not really. That's not even the most embarrassing thing that's happened to me this week."

Ella attempted a comforting smile, but failed. She exhaled a long breath and shook her head, looking around the room.

She turned and looked back at him, her expression grim as she did so. "Ezra, why didn't you say anything? Even with everything that happened…we would have been there for you."

Ezra shook his head, staring down at the floor.

"_Do you understand what you're saying?" His heart raced so fast that his hands were trembling as she still held his hand in both of hers. He wasn't even sure she understood the magnitude of how hard it was for him to be standing here, saying these things._

"Yes."

"_No, I don't think you do. Because if you did, you wouldn't be standing here. You wouldn't dare!" He looked to Ella and saw the anger and mistrust in her eyes. This was **not **working in his favour._

"_Aria, go upstairs. Take Mike with you." Byron ordered._

"_No. No, I'm staying here." Her hand tightened around his and she seemed to step closer, but it didn't quell his fear at how they seemed to be encroaching on him by the second. _

"_If this is true, what you're telling us…" Ella said._

"It is." Aria said insistently .The words were all starting to run together, and he was starting to feel as if he couldn't tell who was saying what or even what he was supposed to say.

"_**No.**" Byron growled. _

"_What I'm hoping can happen is that-" _

"_No. What is gonna happen is that you are gonna leave this house. Right now." Byron advanced even more towards him, and it took everything him to not take a step back; to not entirely shut down right at that moment with all the memories flooding his head. He took a deep breath, trying to speak once more. _

"_Mr. Montgomery-"_

"_**End of conversation.**" The next few moments ran together like a painting running together, and that dizzying feeling took him over once more. He could feel it coming faster than he could say anything. _

"_Dad, just-" _

"_Aria, no!" _

"_Byron-" _

"_I am not asking you. I am telling you." _

"_Dad-" "Mike!" _

_And there it was. The fist to his mouth, though it wasn't at the caliber that he expected it to be. It was only after the copper taste of blood started to fill the bottom of his mouth that he realized it hadn't been Byron who had hit him, but Mike. The familiar memories of the things he expected to happen were running through his mind as he turned his head to look at Aria. He didn't know what he was supposed to do now. _

"_Maybe you should go." _

"I don't think you would have," he said, disagreeing with her. "You and Byron wanted nothing to do with me from the minute that I told you I was in love with your daughter. We were never even given the chance to explain. It was just cut to the quick and assumed that I was just like any other teacher dating a student. Like all I wanted to do was get her into bed."

Ella was quiet for a long time as she stared at him. He wasn't entirely wrong in saying that. While she wasn't sure of Byron's intentions, the first thing that had run through her own mind was that her daughter was brainwashed, and that they needed to get Aria away from Ezra.

She took a deep breath and then turned to look back at him. "While you may be right, I do have to say this – and I'm sure you won't even understand the veracity of this right now, but I wouldn't feel right if I didn't say it. – I have **never **been more wrong about my preconceptions of someone than I was with you."

He darted a look up at her for the briefest moment before he looked back down at a random spot on the wall She didn't know if what she said meant anything to him, but she could only hope that maybe one day he would understand the olive branch she was extending.

_-  
I'm imagining the words you said when last I saw your mouth  
__Yes I'm walking on a tightrope wire, I am so afraid to fall  
-_

The night and following morning passed in a drugged haze for Ezra. He could vaguely recall waking up long enough to have Dianne spoon-feed him something that resembled the taste of soup, given the fact that he was so entirely exhausted and drugged to oblivion that he wasn't sure **what **exactly it was that she had fed him.

By mid-afternoon, he had at least a _little _recollection of what was going on, but it wasn't until the sun was starting to set that he actually felt more than semi-conscious and half-aware of what was going on.

He eyes opened slowly, throbbing badly with every ache in his body that was going untouched by the pain medication that didn't wipe out every ounce of pain he felt. His eyes were still bloodshot from the broken blood vessels, and even though he'd been sleeping for the better part off the last forty-eight hours, he was still tired.

As he looked up, he spotted Aria sitting in the chair next to the bed. She had her legs curled up in the chair with her with a textbook resting in her lap, and her left hand rested on his gauze-wrapped wrist while her other hand was on the right corner of her textbook, running her fingers against the pages as she read whatever her homework must've been.

He exhaled a heavy breath, and grimaced, feeling his stomach spasm with the threat that he might puke as he felt human waste exiting his body from the tube running out of his abdomen. He uncurled his fingers and pulled on the cord connected to the bed remote which was lying between his fingers.

Aria looked up at him when she felt his muscles move, and did a double-take as she realized he was awake. She shoved a marker in her book and then moved it to the nightstand before turning her attention entirely to him.

"Hey," she said softly, running her fingers over his arm. She reached her other hand up to his forehead and brushed his fringe off his face. He turned into her touch, grateful for the warmth. "You okay?"

He shrugged, opening his eyes to look up at her. She always made it easier to say things without ever actually saying a word. When he was able to muster enough energy, he shifted over a few inches on the bed, and the message was clear to her.

Aria moved up onto the bed next to him, letting her feet dangle off the bed as she sat next to him. She was pretty much stuck in the position she was in, given the amount of tubes running in and out of him and the many other things connected to him. She let her arm rest above his head on the pillows as she brushed her fingers absentmindedly through his hair.

"I'm gonna vomit if you keep doing that," he murmured softly.

Aria moved her hand off of his hair, surprised at the comment. She'd done it in the past and he'd never said anything about it. "Can I ask why?"

"He likes to do it to show that he has _power_ over me," Ezra said disgustedly.

"Ezra…" Her voice trembled as she looked down at him.

"Don't," he said gruffly. "I can't deal with that right now."

Aria dropped her head back and stared up at the ceiling, taking a slow, deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. When she was sure she had a handle on herself, she looked back down. Ezra's hand was in her own, and he was moving his thumb back and forth over her index finger. There was a small 'A' shaped scar on the top of it, just below her first knuckle. It was something she and Alison had done together when they were kids. Ezra was the only one who knew about it, because unless it was up extremely close, the scar was so small that it couldn't be seen.

"Why'd you do this?" He asked, running his thumb back and forth over the scar.

Aria shrugged, staring down at their hands. "I don't know. Ali was having a bad day, and so was I. She was cutting paper for a present for someone and cut her finger by accident, and then she started cutting her finger. I thought she was nuts at first when she did it, but then she said I should do it too, and we'd be connected forever." She paused for a moment. "I know it sounds stupid, but Alison could make you feel like you really mattered. She could be a great friend when she wanted to."

Ezra nodded slowly. "I know I've said it before, but I'm sorry you lost her."

"It's fine," she murmured.

Ezra yawned, resting his head back on her arm. Aria rested her forehead on the top of his head gently.

"No one tried to harass you today, did they?" He asked, trying to fight the effects of his pain medication.

"No," Aria replied softly. "It was just school."

He struggled to keep his eyes opened and poorly attempted a groan with his still-recovering voice, but it was useless. His eyes shook from the exhaustion weighing on him.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Apparently I still haven't slept enough."

"You were awake for the better part of four days. Sleep. If I'm not here when you wake up, I'll be here tomorrow," she told him.

Ezra turned his head into her neck and nuzzled against her collarbone. Aria massaged her fingers gently against his scalp and he sighed, relaxing against her. It was the one thing she always knew helped to ease any headache he had and make him relax. Minutes later, he fast asleep.


	7. Six Seconds Before It All Sinks In

_Chapter 7_

_Six Seconds Before It All Sinks In_

Days streamed endlessly into one another in a pain-free haze for Ezra as his body slowly healed from the less serious injuries he'd been left with. He slept through most of them, only to be occasionally disturbed by someone coming to visit. After ten days, he was finally released, free of the tubes that had been running in and out of his body for days. He was still ordered to bed rest with the stitches in his leg and a multitude of other injuries he was nursing.

How he ended up at the Montgomery home with his mother was beyond his own recollection, but he had little will to argue with her, given the fact that by the time they reached the house, he was ready to fall asleep again. He made no fuss as she joined him inside the house and then he settled on the couch, which had already been made up to a makeshift bed with the pull-out extender already pulled as well.

He unsheathed his jacket as best he could and then handed it to his mother before laying his head down on the pillows behind him. His eyes slipped shut, and he vaguely heard her say something about lunch before everything faded out completely.

By mid-afternoon, the only sound that filled the house were the low conversations coming the TV. Ezra rested haphazardly across the couch as Aria walked into the house. She made her way into the kitchen and grabbed an apple from the bowl on the table before heading back into the sitting room. As she looked up and realized the TV was on, she looked down over the couch and saw Ezra fast asleep. His head was turned towards the back of the couch and the blankets covering him were rumpled, tugged halfway up his chest. His left leg was out from under the blankets. His sock-covered foot rested on top of the taupe duvet and his shorts were rustled from sleep, revealing the slightest amount of thick white gauze that was wrapped around his thigh. He snuffled in his sleep and then settled again. The TV remote rolled on his chest against his arm, coming to rest next to his new fiberglass cast.

A frown planted itself on her face as she walked back to the kitchen ad placed her apple back in the bowl before she walked back into the sitting room and gently reached over Ezra. She grabbed the remote and turned the volume all the way down before settling it on the table just behind his head. She pulled the blankets up the slightest bit, and was pulling her arm back when a firm hand wrapped around her wrist. The bright white gauze wrapped around his hand and healing cuts on his fingers were stark against even his own skin.

Ezra said nothing as she stared down at him, surprised by his action. She could see the apprehension in his expression, unsure of just about everything. She brushed her fingers over the underside of his wrist and his grip loosened until her hand was in his. She moved around the couch and laid down on the spot next to him. Ezra's left hand curled loosely around her wrist while her hand was still in his left.

Aria laid on her side, staring at him as he fiddled with her fingers, and searched his eyes for any sign that he was actually there with her. There wasn't even the slightest twitch of light in his eyes though. Exhaustion, maybe. Definitely fear and indignation. But there was nothing there of the man she had fallen so hopelessly in love with.

She gently moved her hand up to his face, very gently brushing her index finger over his bottom lip. Chapstick had become his friend in recent days, given that in four days, his bottom lip had become so badly torn up that it didn't take much for his lips to start bleeding. The hospital had him using the new Neosporin brand, which was supposed to be good and medicated. As her finger trailed over his lip, she could just barely feel the tips of the gauze on the inside of his lip that kept his stitches covered.

A part of her longed to kiss him. To feel his lips on hers just to know if they were the same lips that she had kissed only a few short days ago. But another part of her was terrified that if she did, she would have to face the realization that he **wasn't **the guy she loved. That this left-over shell of fear and loss would refuse her, and leave her in more emotional pain than she was already in, watching him suffer this way.

As it was, he quickly dozed off again, though she wasn't sure her movements of her finger over his bottom lip had anything to do with it. She eventually stopped the movements and just laid beside him, feeling his chest rise and fall under her arm. It was another thing that felt familiar. And yet, she wasn't quite sure which of them had gone through the transformation that left them lying next to each other, but in entirely different mindsets. For a while she was sure it would be him. He was the one who was tortured. He was the one who suffered. But then, he was to some degree used to what he'd been put through. She wasn't.

She hated admitting that she'd pretty much had a storybook life before Ezra, but she had. Except for Alison's disappearance and eventual death, she knew nothing about what it was like to suffer or deal with any kind of abuse. She had quite a charmed life up to a certain point. It made her wonder if that's what he wished for when he was a child. The kind of life that she'd been privileged enough to have.

She laid there in silence for a while, simply watching him sleep. She left her eyes drift shut for a short spell, but never fell asleep. She simply let her eyes rest, and found easily that her ears picked up for the missing sense. They'd done that a lot in the past few weeks.

She heard her mother's keys jangling in the front door before it opened, and opened her eyes. Ella was quiet as she made her way into the house and through the sitting room to the kitchen. She settled several bags on the table.

Aria gently slipped her arm out of Ezra's hold and walked into the kitchen. She reached into one of the bags sitting on the table and started pulling out groceries.

"How was the rest of your day?" Ella asked as she took a loaf of bread from Aria and walked over to one of the cupboards.

Aria shrugged, shaking her head. She turned and looked back in the sitting room. "I tried to focus, but I kept thinking about him. I can't believe they let him leave the hospital."

"The doctors said he was healthy enough to go home and resume most normal activity," Ella reminded Aria.

Aria nodded, looking back at her mother. "I know. I just…I see the way he looks at everyone and _every __**thing **_now_, _and it makes me ache for him."

Ella rubbed her hand up and down Aria's back. "He's going to be okay, Aria. Maybe not right now, but eventually."

Aria exhaled a slow breath as she smiled wanly at Ella. She began to remove groceries from the bags on the table once more, and then turned to Ella as she finished. "What made you change your mind?"

"Pardon?" Ella asked as she placed frozen meat into the freezer.

"The way you approached my relationship with Ezra," Aria clarified. "What made you change your mind?"

Ella nodded once, understanding what she was asking now. She walked back over to the table and began folding down the bags that the food had been in. "Do you remember about three days after the masquerade ball, you had told us about Mona and everything that had been going on all year?"

Aria nodded. "What about it?"

Ella swallowed past the small knot in her throat. "That day, it was two days after you had told your father and I, and it was a Saturday. I remember waking up that morning, and I was going to ask you if you wanted to get out of the house because you'd been home for the most part, not counting school." She exhaled a heavy breath. "When I walked into your room, you were crying in your sleep, and you his t-shirt wrapped up in your hands. I wasn't sure if I should leave you to sleep or wake you up, and then you said his name, and… I don't know. I guess the part of me that remembered what it was like to really be in love wanted to make you feel better. I hated knowing you were suffering, and I wanted to make it stop, even if meant opening this family back up to him."

Aria's bottom lip trembled as she looked over at Ezra sleeping on the couch once more. "We never meant to hurt anyone." She turned and looked back at Ella. "Sometimes I wonder if I hurt him more by fighting for our relationship in the beginning. Maybe he'd be better off if I had let it go. If I had just been the student in the back of the classroom."

"You can't think like that," Ella told her. She ran her hand down Aria's forearm and then grabbed her hand and squeezed it lightly. "You and Ezra were clearly meant to be in each other's lives. It's not fair to start doubting it now."

"But how did we act the way we did together, and have the relationship we did?" Aria asked, her voice trembling. "_Do_ the things we did? He's not…" Tears began to roll down her face as her small hands curled into fists, trying to bring the warmth back into her hands. "Sometimes I'm afraid to touch him now. I'm afraid he's not going to be the person I remember; the person he was two weeks ago."

"Who cares if he isn't?" Ella said. "I know you better that you know yourself, Aria. You're not the kind of person who would end a relationship over something like this."

Aria sighed, wishing for the ability to know, or even believe, that her mother was right.

"C'mon," Ella coaxed her. "You can help me make dinner."

_-  
Well maybe you don't know what love really is  
__Cause baby, if you did, you wouldn't let it go so easy  
-_

Hanna twirled her pencil in her hand as she looked around the room. Things were still messy with Caleb, which wasn't helping anything, and with A lurking around again, there were a whole slew of new problems.

She sighed and dropped her pencil into her book. The front door opened a moment later, and she jumped ever so slightly before turning to look down the hall. Ashley walked down the hallway into the kitchen. She spotted Hanna looking at her as she came into the room.

"Studying?" She asked.

Hanna shrugged. "Trying to. I just can't focus." She looked up at her mom a moment later. "Aria said Ezra was released from the hospital today."

Ashley gave a small nod. The subject of Ezra Fitz had been stiff since Ashley had found out about Aria and Ezra's relationship, but what had happened to him affected them as well. It made Hanna fear for her friend and her former teacher, while Ashley was not only worried about Aria and Ezra, but Hanna as well. After the scandal with Mona, she had come to realize that no one should be excluded from the possibility of danger.

Hanna exhaled a frustrated breath and then removed her pencil and closed her textbook. "I give up. I can't focus. I'm gonna…I don't know. Go call Caleb or something."

"Stay down here," Ashley said as Hanna headed out of the room. "I'll call for Chinese."

She pulled her phone from her pocket and brought the screen up. A new text message lit up her screen and she stared at it for a second longer than she needed to. She'd picked up that habit after Hanna had come home and told her the all the reasons she'd been so guarded with her phone because of A. It wasn't as if she actually thought some teenager actually had the audacity to threaten her, but she couldn't help but wonder what that had been like for her daughter.

She tapped the screen.

**Chinese? I'm at the restaurant right now.  
****-Darren**

Ashley stared down at the screen, contemplating.

_She walked into the bar, pulling her purse tight up on her shoulder. She had sworn to herself months ago that she would never talk to this man again. After Mona had been arrested and then put into treatment, she had no use to see him. And yet with the way things had been going recently, she was seeing him more now than when she had been sleeping with him. _

_Darren turned on the stool he was sitting in and waved to her. Ashley settled on the stool next to him. _

"_Vodka sour," she told the bartender before turning to look back at Darren. "Tell me my daughter is safe." _

"_There's no reason to assume she's not," he told her._

"_Someone just tried to kill one of my daughter's best friends' boyfriend. Said friend goes to school with my daughter. Are you telling me Aria Montgomery is safe?" Ashley said curtly. _

"_From what we've been able to ascertain," Darren replied. "Yes. Michael Fitzgerald is in protective custody so that no one murders him before he's tried." _

"_Then what use do you have to call me?" Ashley asked. _

"_I'm sorry," Wilden replied sardonically. "Was I interrupting something important?"  
_

_Ashley sighed. "What do you want, Darren? You and I don't work well around each other. All we do is bicker." _

_Darren smiled cheekily. "There was a time when you would've called that foreplay."_

_Ashley rolled her eyes. She grabbed her drink off the counter and downed it before pulling her wallet out of her purse and placing a bill on the bar for the bartender. "I'm leaving."_

_Darren's shoulder dropped, and he sighed, frustrated. "Ashley, wait." _

_She turned on her heel to look back at him. "What?" _

_He was quiet for a moment and then stood and walked over to her. He towered over her in height. "It's just…Is there any chance you'd be willing to give this another shot? You and I?"  
_

_She shifted her weight to her other foot and tilted her head to the other side. "Darren, the last time we got involved, you used me for information on a murder you were __**sure **__my daughter had __**at least **__helped commit." _

"_But I don't believe that anymore," he told her. When he could see that she wasn't deterring from her opinion, he changed his standpoint. "Look at this way: we could go slow __–__ actually date this time. And I'd be able to tell you if Hanna was in any danger." _

_Ashley stared into his baby blue eyes. She had a million reasons to tell him no. To tell him that she had every reason to tell him off. And yet she couldn't. If saying yes to giving Darren Wilden a second chance kept her daughter safe, then she would take that leap. She would do anything to protect Hanna. _

"Did you call for food yet?"

Ashley looked up from her phone, surprised. "What? Oh. Darren is bringing Chinese."

Hanna's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Darren? As in Wilden?"

There was trepidation in Hanna's eyes, and Ashley could quickly tell that she wasn't pleased. But Hanna's next words surprised her.

"I hope he's bringing enough for four, because I invited Caleb."

_-  
Oh you're all I taste at night inside of my mouth  
__Oh you run away 'cause I am not what you found  
-_

Ezra limped into the kitchen and settled in a chair at the table, watching as Ella and Dianne buzzed around the kitchen. Dianne looked up at him as she opened up a bag filled with the various medications he'd been prescribed earlier that day after being released from the hospital. She walked over to the chair next to his and sat down before gently lifting his leg up so that his calf rested over her knee. She reached up and began to roll back the top of his shorts until the gauze wrapped around his leg was in full view.

"Aria, would you go ask Mike if he's still planning on going to your fathers?" Ella asked as she settled a bowl of mashed potatoes on the table.

Ezra winced as Dianne pulled gently on the gauze that was wrapped around his leg. He'd awoken to his mother and Aria both hovering over him telling him that the dream he'd been having was just that, and nothing else.

The eight inch wound came into view as she tossed the used, yellowed gauze into a hazardous waste bag next to her. The wound was a pallor color, and dark green stitches shone brightly against it as she gently wiped away the left-over hospital-issued antibiotic ointment with a warm cloth. Ezra winced under her touch, clenching his hand over the arm of the chair he was sitting in.

"Sorry," she murmured softly. "Still tender?"

Ezra nodded, biting hard on his tongue to keep from ripping the stitches in his lip.

"It looks to be healing nicely. Which is good, considering." She reached up onto the table and grabbed antibiotic ointment and then squeezed a generous amount onto her gloved hand and rubbed it gently over the stitches before removing the gloves and grabbing a fresh bandage and placing it over the wound and then began to wrap it again.

"Mom, Mike is-"

Aria's voice trailed off as she walked into the kitchen, flanked by Byron. Ella turned from where she was stirring something on the stove.

"Mike is what?" She looked up at saw Byron. "Oh. Hi, Byron."

"I didn't really think you were serious, but you're going to let them stay here? Really, Ella after-"

"Don't do it, Byron," she scolded, wiping her hands off with a towel.

"Aria could be dead right now because of him!" Byron yelled, pointing to Ezra.

Ezra's brow furrowed in frustration as he looked over at Byron. "**YOU** could be dead because of me!" He yelled. "What? It's not enough to be beaten and gang raped? He's actually got to **KILL** me for you to be satisfied?! Should we just rip the stitches out right now?!"

Byron's reaction of utter silence was not expected, and it only further infuriated Ezra.

"How about this one for measure," Ezra said. "When he was stabbing me in the leg because he was gonna cut my femoral artery, he said he was making up for not being able to shoot you. Or when he stabbed me in the chest, how he was making up for the fact that he didn't kill your son? And I'm sure you'd just LOVE to hear what he said he did for Aria."

Ezra seethed as Dianne pushed him gently back in his chair, murmuring quietly that he had made his point. He glared at her angrily and she shook her head at him.

"You're going to rip stitches and end up back in the hospital," she murmured quietly.

"Why would I make something like that up," he growled past the knot forming in his throat. "I'd do **ANYTHING** to..."

He turned his head away from them, trying to get a hold on his emotions while his memory hit him like a freight train.

Ella waited a few moments before she finally looked up at Byron. "What about Mike?"

"Staying at my place tonight," Byron said tentatively, though his eyes were still on Ezra. There was conflict in his expression.

Dianne went to work removing the sling on Ezra's arm, but his anger and frustration drove him to yank the strap free from the Velcro until the sling was barely attached to his body. Once she removed the sling, he winced as she extended his arm and slowly began to unravel the bandaging on his upper arm. She stopped midway up his arm, though and sighed.

"I need to remove your t-shirt. Did you know it was wrapped around your torso?"

"I was half-asleep when she wrapped it," Ezra muttered lowly. He pulled his t-shirt over off haphazardly, revealing a myriad of gauze and bandages. Dianne finished unraveling the bandaging around his arm and shoulder, and then pulled the gauze off of either side of his shoulder and revealed the healing gunshot wounds. They were point blank wounds with burns around the edges. Ezra dared a gaze down at the wounds and grimaced at the sight of them.

Byron stood across the room, still watching horrorstruck the sight of Ezra's many wounds. It was clear that he was surprised by so many injuries, but there was still conflict in his reaction as to whether it was because of him that Ezra was so terribly injured.

For Ezra, though, the staring didn't help to do anything except make him feel more humiliated and vulnerable. The things that Byron said cut him deeper than anything his father could've done to him, simply because of the fact that Byron didn't believe him.

_Ezra winced, digging his nails into the palms of his hands as he tried to breathe through the pain. He didn't dare to look down at the knife shoved into his leg. The blood running over the side of his thigh was doing a well enough job of making him sick to his stomach. _

"_On the very __**off **__chance you ever see that little whore's father again, you go ahead and tell him that that was for him." A moment later, he moved the knife just slightly, and a stream of blood gushed out onto Ezra's leg. He squirmed under Michael as the innate self-preservation kicked in and he tried to stop the flow of blood running out of his body from his femoral artery. It didn't take long for Michael to move though. In Ezra's own determination to stop the flow of blood, a sudden pain between his legs distracted him for a few seconds, where Michael's knee rested under the base of his spine. He shoved the knife as deeply inside him as he could. _

"_And that was for that whore of yours, because you'll never really belong to anyone else, but me." _

"Ezra?"

A tear was lingering on his face as his surroundings became clear to him again. He looked up. Byron was still standing in the doorway, though Mike was now standing there as well. Dianne was trying to get his attention. Aria was standing nearby, trying to be less obvious about the fact that she was also looking at him.

"What?" He rasped after wiping the stray tear off his face. His eyes fell to the still-exposed gauze on his leg. He could remember so clearly trying to breathe in those moments before the door had opened his mother had stormed into the room with Detective Wilden. He remembered the pain that seemed to have spread through his entire body. He remembered watching his blood shoot up into the air from his heart racing, and seeing his hands coated in wet blood from trying slow the flow of blood.

"Shirt." Dianne said. Ezra lifted it over his head and then slipped his arm into the right sleeve before he maneuvered his left arm into the left sleeve before Dianne pulled it down his body.

"Can I get you anything?" She asked.

"Sweater." He replied gruffly. She stood a moment later, and he reached out to tug down the leg of his shorts. It was only after she was headed for the guest room that he spoke again. "And pain medication."

_-  
All that you rely on and all that you can face  
__Will leave you in the morning and find you in the day  
-_

He barely touched his dinner, even though his mother was sitting next to him throughout the entire meal, coaching him to take more bites. The sad truth was that he simply wasn't hungry. He was disinterested in everything, and wanted nothing more than to disappear.

Some time after the plates had been cleared away and the dishes had been placed into the dishwasher, he changed into track pants and followed Aria outside onto the back deck. She was curled up in and outdoor rocker, reading one of her text books while he was lying back on a lounge chair next to her. Neither of them spoke as they sat out in the darkness, though he couldn't help but whip his head around every time there was the slightest sound that someone might be approaching, even though it was mostly rabbits, squirrels, and raccoons.

He rubbed his fingers hard against each other as they trembled lightly next to him. He'd said nothing to anyone in the nearly two weeks since he'd been rescued about being drugged, but the need for it there.

Aria yawned as she turned the page in her textbook. He turned his gaze away from her and picked up his phone from where it was lying next to him. His third phone in less than a month. Well, there were perks to being loaded, he supposed.

He brought the screen up and scrolled through his contacts. His thumb hovered over a name.

It would be simple. He could send a text, and all he would have to do was go and pick it up. No one would have to know. He pressed his thumb down on the contact and options of what to do came up. Tentatively, he pushed _send a text message. _A screen lit up with a blank box. He stared at it for several long moments.

Aria yawned again, and he dropped his phone onto his chest, wincing as it hit one of his many bruises. She closed her text book as she looked up at him.

"Are you okay?"

Ezra nodded, picking up his phone and quickly closing out the empty message.

"I'm gonna go to bed," she said, slowing the rocker she was sitting in. "Do you want me to stay in the guest room by you?"

"Sure," he murmured. "I'll be just a few minutes." He moved off the chair and stood up, tucking his hand into his pocket. Aria walked over to him and he tilted his head down, letting her kiss him on the cheek.

She walked into the house, and he continued to stand there, still watching the yard for any sign of anyone trying to come in.

He stayed outside for more than half an hour, so he could be sure that she'd headed to bed. As he made his way back into the house, he could see that everyone else had already gone to bed as well, which worked for him. He walked through the house to the front door and slipped his feet into his shoes before grabbing his keys off the hook they were hanging on and walking out of the house.

He was quiet as he slipped the door shut and then headed across the lawn. His car was parked right outside the driveway. He walked over to it and got in before starting it and pulling his seatbelt on. He really didn't care that he was supposed to be taking it easy. He'd been at other people's mercy for over two weeks. He was going to do what he wanted.

The car purred to life, and he blasted the windscreen with the liquid inside the wipers before wipers wipe the liquid away, along with all the other debris that had gathered on his windscreen in the past two weeks.

He shifted the car into drive a moment later, and then was heading across town, back towards the hotel where he'd been held captive. Even so, he didn't drive all the way there. He wasn't proud of it, but after moving to Rosewood, as a security blanket, he had made sure to find out where all the dealers hung out. He'd never actually gotten in touch with one in the past, but at the time, he hadn't been forced to snort cocaine, either.

He parked his car several blocks away from the street and then got out and began to walk, keeping his hand tucked into his sweater pocket as he did. He had a few twenties in his pocket, which he knew was enough to by enough to keep him sated for a few days.

"Ezra?"

The sound of his name made him freeze, but after a second he realized he knew the voice calling his name, even though it didn't help much. He turned his head and spotted Caleb.

"What're you doin' on this side of town," Caleb asked.

Ezra stared at the younger man whom had been in his class the year before. "I could ask you the same thing. Or why you're even out this late."

Caleb stared at him for several moments before the realization hit him, which only further served to frustrate Ezra. The last thing he needed was for Hanna to find out and then tell Aria, who would undoubtedly tell his mother.

"Don't go to them," Caleb told him firmly.

"With all due respect, it's none of your business," Ezra told him.

Caleb shook his head. "No, I'm not…" He sighed. "I'm not trying to tell you what you can't do, but don't go to the guys on Carter. They'll screw you over and from what I've been told, you run a pretty high risk of end up getting crap that'll make you sick."

Ezra stared at him, holding his hands out in a 'then what?' expression.

Caleb took a deep breath and shook his head again. "I know a guy. He's back that way about four blocks," he said, pointing in the direction Ezra had come in.

Ezra sighed and turned around. They walked in silence for the first two blocks before Caleb turned and looked at him.

"What are you looking for?" He asked.

"Cola," Ezra replied stiffly, but casually.

Caleb nodded. The conversation ended there until they had reached where Caleb had been referring to. Caleb led him down a street into the beginnings of an alley outside an abandoned club. There was a guy with dark, spiky hair talking with another guy. They waited until the other customer had gone before Ezra walked up to the guy in step with Caleb.

"Cal," the guy said cheerfully, extending a hand. "Good to see you man. I haven't seen you around here in a while. Who's this?"

Caleb shook his hand stiffly. Caleb looked up at the man in front of him. "Hey, D. This is Bear. He's lookin' for coke."

The dealer looked to Ezra and looked him up and down a few times before finally nodding. "How much?"

"Four quarters," Ezra said, reaching for his pocket.

The man nodded before reaching into his pocket and pulling out what Ezra was referring to. He handed the drugs to Caleb and Ezra handed over the bills. It had only been a few seconds, but that was all it took for drugs and money to exchange hands. Caleb handed the cocaine to Ezra, who in turn stuffed it into the pocket of his sweater.

The dealer extended his hand to Ezra. "Good doin' business with you, man. Name's Damien. You need more, Cal has my number."

And then it was over. Ezra and Caleb headed back down the alley and onto the sidewalk. As they walked, Ezra turned and looked at Caleb.

"I **get **not introducing me with my real name, but why Bear? I'm not black, and I'm certainly not huge and menacing." Ezra asked.

Caleb chuckled. "No, but since you know well enough to not use your real name, I had to think fast."

"And?" Ezra pressed him.

Caleb let out a quiet laugh, looking up at Ezra. "Aria told Hanna who told me about the Pookiebear story. Sorry, it was all I had."

Ezra shook his head. "Alright Fruit Loop," he said, referring to a nickname Caleb had picked up the year before from Hanna after confessing an unrelenting love of the cereal. "Two can play at that game."

Caleb rolled his eyes, but there was a small smile on his face. When they reached Ezra's car, Ezra walked around it while Caleb headed down the street.

"Hey, Fitz?" He called out when Ezra was opening his car door.

Ezra looked up at him. "Hmm?"

"I know it's none of my business…" He paused for a moment, looking down at the ground with a conflicted expression. "Just be careful. I'd hate to find out you got through all that other crap, just so that this could be your downfall."

Ezra nodded, and the two men waved goodbye to each other before he got back into the car and headed back to the Montgomery home.

When he arrived back, he headed into the house and kicked off his shoes before making sure the front door was locked. He headed through the house into the kitchen and jumped when he saw Ella pouring herself a glass of cold water from a pitcher.

"I thought I was the only one awake," he said, clutching his chest with his broken hand, even though it was already pinned there by the sling for his collarbone.

Ella shrugged. "I got thirsty. Are you?"

Ezra shook his head. "Nope. Just up walking around."

If Ella was suspicious of him, she didn't say anything. He headed back out of the room and down the hall into the bathroom. He waited inside the small room until he heard footsteps heading up the stairs before he reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the bags. He wiped down the countertop, just incase there was anything on it, and then opened the bag and poured out a small amount onto it. He reached into his pocket and then pulled out a bill and used it to straighten the white powder into two lines before rolling the bill up.

He stared down at the white powder for a few seconds, actually questioning the next move he was about to make. He knew if he decided to break recovery and give in, that there was no going back. If he started again and ever decided to stop again, he'd be starting over from scratch.

And then he remembered. What the fuck did he care if he had to start over from scratch? He'd already been robbed of everything that meant something to him. It was with that though in mind that he leaned down and brought the rolled bill up to his left nostril while he held the right shut, and breathed in the white powder. He sniffed a few times quickly and then repeated the process with the second line into his right, before unrolling the bill and wiping down the counter, though there wasn't anything left on it. The burning in his nose started to settle in, and he welcomed it.

He headed out of the room and turned the light off before walking down the short hallway to the guest room. Aria was curled up on the bed, fast asleep.

He removed his sling and then his sweater before reapplying his sling. He walked over to the empty side of the bed, where all of the things that had been liberated from his apartment when he had left it weeks earlier, sat in several boxes. He reached into the one furthest away and pulled out a small box and opened it. There were little mementos and trinkets from his relationship with Jackie. Things he never looked at anymore.

Somewhere no one would think to look.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bags of cocaine before dropping them into the box and making sure they were buried at the bottom before he covered the box again and placed it back into the larger box.

He moved up onto the bed and laid down next to Aria. She exhaled a sigh in her sleep and turned over on the bed so that she was facing away from him. He let his arm drop above her head on the pillows, staring up at the ceiling. A few moments later, she curled into him, and he wrapped his arm around her. He could feel the cocaine kicking and starting to bring on the numbness that had drawn him to it years earlier.

He was fast asleep a few minutes later.


	8. Sometimes The Only Way Around It

**A/N: **The song at the end of this chapter hits me hard on the day I'm writing it (August 8th) The song itself (4 Years [Casey's Song] by Cady Groves) is about someone that meant a lot to Cady, and ironically, today is the 4 year anniversary of my cousin's death. He was only 18, and he shouldn't have died the way he did or as young as he did. As it is, the song actually fits well with what's going on. The chapter explains more to that…

**A/N 2: **The original A/N was written in August… Shows how long I've been writing this story…wow.

_Chapter 8_

_Sometimes The Only Way Around It_

Ezra rubbed his eyes wearily as he rolled his head back on the pillows. The throbbing in his skull was there to greet him, just as it had been in the past few weeks. He laid there for several minutes, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he waited for the worst of it to pass. Aria was still fast asleep next to him, and the sun wasn't even up, but he'd spent so much time sleeping lately that he didn't want to any longer.

He slipped his arm out from under Aria and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He rubbed his eyes once more before looking down at the box resting on the floor. There was a silent question in his head of how far he wanted to walk down this road before he would – most likely – inevitably have to turn around and start walking back. It was irritatingly split between the driving need to start his day the way he had in the past; with just enough to make it through the next few hours before he'd want to get high again. Or he could take the noble option and not get high. Granted the noble option was accompanied with pain medication that didn't entirely take care of the pain he was actually feeling, as well as the fact that it didn't dull his senses enough to not have to deal with what was going on in his own head.

He sighed and moved off the bed before leaning over and grabbing the box out of the larger box. He pulled it out and then opened it and retrieved the bag he'd had the night before. He recovered the box and then placed it back into the one it had been in and grabbed his wallet off the table. He opened it and retrieved a bill before heading out of the room and down to the hall to the bathroom. He opened the door and stepped inside before shutting it behind himself and locking it.

He poured out the white powder onto the counter and then split it into several lines with the bill he was holding in his hand before snorting it. Just like the night before, he quickly wiped it the spot when he was finished before tucking the nearly empty bag into his pocket along with the bill. He proceeded to use the facilities before walking out of the bathroom and back to the bedroom. He grabbed the box once more and replaced the bag before walking out of the room again.

Normally, he would've changed into workout clothes and gone for a run, but he had far too many injuries working against him to actually be able to do that. He walked to the front of the house and grabbed his jacket and keys before slipping his feet into his shoes and walking out of the house. He walked to his car and got into it before starting it. He knew that there were at least a dozen different laws he was breaking by driving _technically _under the influence, but he had mastered functioning under the influence years earlier. He could do everything he needed to do, without having to handle the effects of what he'd been put through because of his father.

He reached his destination a few moments later and then parked his car outside of the building before getting out and tucking his keys into his pocket. He walked over to the double doors and opened the left before walking inside.

He pulled his keys out and slipped one into the mailbox marked 3B and turned it open. There was a large stack of envelops lying inside. He pulled them out and slipped them under his arm, pinned to his chest from the sling. He closed the small box and then retrieved his keys before making his way through the building.

He arrived at his apartment a few moments later. The lock was broken, and the door was just barely closed.

He turned the doorknob and opened the door before walking inside. The room was softly lit from the two lamps in his apartment that hadn't been broken. As he looked around, there were books knocked from broken shelves and papers all over the floor. Anything that was breakable by ripping, throwing, or pushing, had been broken.

In the midst of the clutter, Hardy was lying on the floor, flipping through a stack of papers. He looked up at Ezra, only pulling the papers down far enough that Ezra could see one of his eyes in the dim lighting.

"What're you doing here?" He asked. His voice sounded funny; almost as if he'd been drinking.

Ezra raised his eyebrows. "I could ask you the same thing. This is **my **apartment."

Hardy let out a laugh. "Not by any sense of habitation." He pushed himself up into a seated position and rested his elbows on his knees as he continued to read the papers in his hands. "I'm trying to make sure everything that's important to your safety has already been removed from this apartment. But those guys made so much of a mess in here, that I can barely tell what goes with what."

Ezra slipped his keys into his pocket and walked over to the coffee table. He dropped his mail on top of it and dropped to his haunches before picking up two pieces of paper from the floor. The one hanging off to the left was an insurance bill for being seen at the hospital earlier in the year for strep throat. The sheet resting half on top of it was a paper he'd written for a final in college.

"This is just lovely," he said softly, frustrated. He dropped the papers and looked around the room again.

The bags that Aria had made when they'd taken their first photo together were torn up and wrinkled as if something had been spilled on them. There were broken pieces of porcelain lying on top of them from his broken dishes. He shook his head and looked back down at Hardy.

"All of this, just to find me."

Hardy looked up from the papers, folding them forward, and Ezra saw him clearly for the first time. "All of this just to find you," he repeated affirmatively.

Ezra shook his head, enraged as he saw the black and blue bruises coating most of Hardy's face. They were fresh; no more than a few hours old, and there was a nasty cut on the side of his bottom lip.

"Hardy-"

"Don't say it, Ezra," Hardy growled, cutting him off. "I'm not going anywhere. Someone wants to kill you, there gonna have to come through me and a hell of a lot of other people."

Ezra huffed, and Hardy glared at him.

"Do know how damn stupid it was for you to go walking into his trap!?" Hardy said angrily.

"He was gonna kill Aria's entire family and then torture her before he killed her too!" Ezra argued back.

"Really!?" Hardy boasted. "You **really **think he would've killed an entire family just to get you alone?! Cause I think he would've done _anything _**but **that. Hurt them, sure. Kidnapped, maybe. But I think more than anything, he used your own choices against you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" Ezra said angrily.

Hardy's eyes were wide as he tossed the papers on the floor. "It means I told you to stop this last year! I told you to get away from Aria!"

"I'm in love with her!" Ezra yelled. It hurt his vocal chords, and he winced as he brought a hand to his windpipe, rubbing it. "Is that such a fucking crime?"

"It's a problem," Hardy said shrewdly. "You want to run from Michael Fitzgerald like you have been for the last ten years, you're gonna have to do a whole lot better than you have been." He reached out and gripped the collar of Ezra's jacket. "And that includes buying drugs off the street."

Ezra swiped Hardy's hand off his jacket and stood. "Why the fuck do you care?! You're not of any use to this problem anymore! Leave! Go have a damned life away from me!"

Hardy shoved himself to his feet and stepped forward so that he was eye-to-eye with Ezra. "I didn't put six years into this so that that son-of-a-bitch could kill you like this, or so that you could get back into a drug addiction you **swore **you'd never go back to. All those people he's paid off to make sure you get killed, he's paid off to kill me too, damn it! He may not be making sure I suffer as badly as you do, but I'm sure if he **really **thought it would get him the answers he wanted faster, he would."

Ezra shook his head. "I swear to God, Hardy, if he does that-"

"If he **does **that, you're going to learn to accept the fact that you can't control anything that psycho does!" Hardy growled. "I know you're upset that he's doing all of this, but you can't stop him on your own."

Both men stared each other down, furious. It didn't help that the reason they were angry at their current situation instead of at each other.

Ezra stepped back, looking over at one of the broken bookshelves. "I'm sick of people getting hurt," he said.

Hardy shook his head, exhaling a breath as he closed his eyes for a moment. "You can't control what he does, Ezra."

_-  
I can erase you and forget you  
__But I can't undo you  
-_

Sometime after the sun had come up, they both headed back to the Montgomery's to find Aria and Ella rushing to get out the door on time.

"I'm **really **not pleased with the fact that you just left this morning without even leaving a note," Dianne told him as she settled a plate of food on the counter in front of him. Ezra picked up a piece of toast off of it and pulled a small piece off.

"It was four thirty in the morning," he replied. "I wasn't about to wake someone up."

She shook her head at him. "You **just **got out of the hospital. Are you trying to end up back there?"

"If he's going to kill me, let him kill me," Ezra replied.

Aria walked up behind him and snatched a piece of toast off a plate in the middle of the table. She glanced up at him stiffly as she grabbed a knife and swiped a line of butter across it. "That's not even **remotely **funny, Ezra."

He turned on the stool he was sitting on and glared at her. "**That **is the reality," he exclaimed. "I'm sorry it's too hard for you to grasp that that son-of-a-bitch wants me dead."

Aria stared at him, floored by his comment. He'd never said something with such distain towards her, and her fear that the man she had fallen in love with was gone burned brighter than it had ever before.

She shook her head and tossed the toast into the trash before pulling her school bag up over her shoulder. She turned towards Ella. "I'm ready to go."

Ezra shoved out of his seat and walked out of the room, down the hall to the bedroom. He shut the door tightly behind him and leaned against it angrily. He rested his head back against it.

"_You want to explain to me why I found __**this **__in your room?" _

_Ezra looked up from the history book he was attempting to take in. His jaw slackened just in the slightest as he saw the small bag Dianne was holding between her index and middle finger, filled with white powder. "I don't-"_

"Don't even

_**try **__to lie to me, kid." Her words stung. She'd only ever called him 'kid' when she was angry. "I'm a doctor. I can read drug addicts better than most cops can." _

_He stared back and forth between her and the bag of cocaine in her hand. "I…" _

_She sighed and shook her head, walking over to him. She sat down on the couch next to him. "How long has this been going on?" _

_Ezra stared at the small bag as he gulped. "I don't know. A while." _

He stared down at the empty bag in his hand and then curled his fingers tightly around it. The silent notion that he was going nowhere fast didn't do much to make him change how he felt about what he'd just done.

He walked across the room and opened the flap to one of the bags lying on the ground with his clothes. He dug through the bag until he found a fresh pair of jogging pants and then stood and tossed them on the bed.

It wasn't much to get out of the clothes he was already wearing, but getting into fresh ones took several minutes. Even so, once he was, he tucked the empty bag into his pocket and then tossed the dirty clothes into the hamper near the door before heading back out of the room. The house had fallen silent, and as he headed back into the kitchen, his mother was working on cleaning up Hardy's face and otherwise checking over his injuries.

"You feeling less like punching something?" Dianne asked as she handed Hardy an ice pack.

Ezra offered up the sling to his mother. "I can't get it on by myself."

She walked over to him and took it from his hands before slipping it over his head and adjusting it until it was properly holding his arm in place. She rested her hand on his arm as soon as she'd settled it, and looked up into his eyes. A moment later, her brow furrowed.

"Oh, kid…"

Ezra turned his head, but she was quicker. She grabbed his chin and turned his head back to face her.

"I hoped you'd be smarter than to give into this again after you got back home," she said.

Ezra swiped her hand off his face. "I spent four days locked up in a hotel room with the continuous threat that if I left, he was going to kill Aria. And I didn't ask for the cocaine; it was just another thing he forced on me. So **please**, spend four days the way I did and **then **tell me to stay clean."

He walked past her over to the trash and threw the small bag into it before walking out of the room. He walked to the front of the house and slipped his feet into his shoes.

"Ezra, don't leave-"

"I **don't **want to be here!" He yelled at his mother.

"You **need **to rest," she replied.

"So I'll find somewhere else to do it," he argued back. "I can't sit here bottled up. I'm gonna do something if I spend another minute stuck inside."

She sighed, shaking her head. "Ezra, you run like it's getting you somewhere. You **can't **run from this. It didn't work _last_ time."

_The headache from hell that he should've had was barely a dull ache compared to the pain he was feeling in his left arm. He dug his heels into the floor and pushed himself up, trying to breathe. He gulped in between heavy gasps of air, and stared up at Michael as he stood and redressed himself. _

"_Why not just kill me?" He rasped. _

_Michael looked down at him, clearly displeased that Ezra thought he had a place asking such a direct question. "You're not worth much, but you're worth more alive here than you are dead," he answered disgustedly. _

_He dropped to his knee next to Ezra and gripped the chain around his neck, sending Ezra into a scramble for air. "But make no mistake, boy. You don't deserve a fucking thing on this planet. You'd be better off dead." _

_-  
I can't shake you off of me and I can't be here  
__And help but think that you should be next to me  
-_

Ezra stacked together a sheet of papers and then maneuvered them between his legs so that he could staple them back together. Earlier in the day when he and Hardy had returned to the house, they had filled several boxes with the discarded papers around the room and brought them back to the Montgomery home to figure out what went with what.

Hardy handed him a stack of papers. "Medical records."

Ezra settled the stapled papers onto a small pile that they had actually sorted and then took the stack that Hardy was handing over and settled it on top of the stack.

He hadn't said a word since that morning when his mother had stopped him from leaving, and really had no indifference to changing that current situation.

Dianne walked into the room and settled a tray of food on the table in front of the men before settling glasses in front of them. There was a motherly attitude about it, but Ezra still didn't make any move to say anything.

A knock at the door brought both of the boys' attention up from the papers they were attempting to assemble into some semblance of order. Dianne shook her head at them as she walked to the front door. She opened it and a moment later, Ezra looked out into the hallway at the sound of yet another familiar voice.

"_Is he okay?" _

"Why don't you ask him yourself," Dianne said as she entered the room with Wesley.

The youngest Fitz walked into the room. He and Hardy shook hands as they greeted each other.

"Did you piss someone off?" Wesley asked, noting all the bruises and cuts on his brother's best friend's face.

"Oh, just a few dirty cops," Hardy replied before picking up a sheet of paper from a box they hadn't yet touched. He turned towards Ezra. "Rosewood High School papers? "

Ezra pointed to a stack and then brushed his thumb under his nose, sniffling as he grabbed another sheet and added it to yet another stack.

Wesley looked to Dianne, and she simply shook her head at him, dismissing whatever question he would've thought to ask. She waved him into the kitchen. Wesley passed Ezra and followed Dianne out of the room. He turned his full attention to her once they were out of earshot to Ezra and Hardy.

"What the hell is going on with him?" He asked. "I get a phone call two weeks ago telling me Michael's got him…" He shook his head in pure confusion. "I don't-…What the hell?"

Dianne shook her head, looking into the sitting room where Ezra and Hardy were still making their way through the boxes. "It's not good, Wes. He's not good."

He followed her line of sight and looked at Ezra. His older brother made no move to look into the kitchen or even show that he cared what Wesley and Dianne were discussing. He sighed, and shook his head.

"I thought he was over all of this." He muttered.

Dianne narrowed her eyes at Wesley. "Wesley Ezekiel!"

"What!?" He argued back, though they were both being quiet as to not upset Ezra further.

"Are you even **aware **of what's happened the last few weeks?" She asked. "Where your brother has been?"

He shook his head, extending his neck just slightly in a confused shrug. "Hanging out here? That's what I was told. I haven't talked to either of you since you said you were coming to Rosewood."

"I came to Rosewood because your **father **came to Rosewood, Wesley." He said. "He had Ezra for almost a week."

Wesley looked back to sitting room at Ezra and Hardy once more. "S-so, his arm, and the bruises…"

Dianne nodded. "He just got out of the hospital yesterday."

Wesley ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head. "Why didn't anyone call me?"

"Because we wanted you to be safe," she told him. "We're still not entirely sure Ezra is safe. Michael is in jail, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything."

Wesley shook his head again, turning to look back at Dianne. "I don't get it. Any of it. Why would he do that to him? He's his son."

"I don't know, Wes. I've never understood it either."

_-  
In the end it seemed there was no room for me  
__Still I tired to change your mind  
-_

Aria breathed a soft sigh of relief as she sipped from her iced coffee. It was freezing outside, but she was still glad to not be stuck at home all afternoon. For the first time in weeks, she was out in public with her friends instead of being stuck inside where it was supposed to be safe. She didn't quite agree with how that made sense, when Ezra had been in the 'safety' of their home, and Michael had still found him.

Spencer settled a plate of cheese fries on the table, and Aria stole one as she pulled her arm from her coat before looking around the café. The fact that it was so empty surprised her, given that ever since it had been opened, it had become a regular staple in Rosewood.

"Hey!" Spencer feigned a whine. "You know how I am with cheese fries?"

Aria chuckled and surrendered a small smile. "So get me some."

Spencer narrowed her eyes at her best friend for a moment, and then resigned. "Fine. But you owe me." She walked over to the counter, and Aria shifted on her seat to pull her buzzing phone out of her pocket. She brought the screen up and opened the new text message.

**We're bored out of our minds.  
****Where are you?  
****-Hardy**

Aria sighed, tapping the small box at the bottom of the screen. She began to type back a reply.

Spencer returned to the table a few moments later and settled a fresh plate of fries in front of her. 'What's up?"

Aria shook her head, smiling at she settled her phone on the table. "Nothing. Ezra and his best friend are coming."

Spencer raised her eyebrows as she popped a fry into her mouth. "Really?"

Aria nodded. "I guess they're bored."

Spencer. "So why do you look so bummed; like someone's crashing your party?"

Aria shrugged, running a hand through her hair as she pulled it over to the left side of her head. "I don't know. We've just been around each other so much lately, and he's so depressed." She gulped as her chin quivered with tears threatening to fall. "Half the time I'm so angry I want to punch someone, and the other half of the time…" She sighed, looking down at her coffee. "It just sucks."

Spencer nodded. "Have you tried doing anything to get out of your own head? Writing? Playing music?"

Aria shook her head. "I've pretty much been with him. And this morning…" She sighed again, running her fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry. I'm whining too much."

Spencer shook her head. "No, you're not. You've got a lot going on right now, and A isn't helping much."

Aria nodded. "You've got that right."

Spencer looked up and spotted Holden across the room talking to Emily. "Well Holden plays guitar. Why not ask him to play with you?"

Aria looked across the room. She shrugged. "Maybe when he's finished talking to Em."

Spencer chuckled and shook her head as they turned their attention to their cheese fries. They ate in relative silence for a few minutes, while Aria occasionally looked up to see if Holden and Emily were still talking. She was quite surprised when he turned up standing next to her.

"You kept looking over by Emily and I," he stated. "What's up?"

Aria wiped her hands off with a napkin. "Would you want to play guitar for me while I sing? I need to blow off some steam."

"Sure," Holden replied.

Aria stood and they walked over to the small stage in the coffee shop. A dozen or so more people had shown up since she and Spencer had arrived, and made the place feel less empty.

Holden walked over to where there were two guitars standing side by side. One was acoustic while the other was electric.

"Acoustic," Aria told him. "You remember Casey's song?"

Holden nodded. He picked up the guitar from its cradle and then walked over to one of the stools settled on the stage while Aria sat down on the other. She adjusted the mic on it's stand and then looked around. She always got a bit nervous when she was about to sing.

The door jangled across the room as she opened her mouth to speak, and Hardy and Ezra walked in. She narrowed her eyes in the slightest, noticing the bruising on Hardy's face. She'd have to ask about that later.

"Aria."

She looked up at Holden and then shook her head, clearing away thoughts of what she'd just seen, and turned her attention back to the people sitting at various tables, staring at her.

"I- Um, a family member of mine died about six years ago, and I wrote this for him. It's been in my head all day, so I thought…" She shrugged. She turned to Holden, and he began to strum the guitar.

"_La da da  
__La da da da  
__La da da  
__La da da da_

_He made it look easy  
__But it aint so easy  
__Swinging from the edge of the limb  
_

_No,  
__Nobody believed me  
__Nobody believed it  
__If I swore last night  
__I ran into him…_

_Cause he's been long gone  
__For so damn long  
__They swear he's made it home  
__But I'm still holding on_

_Cause its been four more  
__four more years than I  
__could take without him in my life  
__im no stranger to the pain  
__cause i've cried  
__more tears in four years  
__than i'll  
__admit-i just cant see why  
__someone would take away his life  
__i guess its been  
__Four years-four years since i  
__never got to say goodbye  
__i never got to say goodbye…"_

She paused for just a second to take a breath, and spotted Ezra's eyes on her. She'd never sung in front of him, which made this moment all that more nerve-wracking.

"_well i was just a baby  
__when casey saved me  
__i've always owed my whole life to him_

_its enough to drive me crazy  
__that i cant save casey  
__cause whats been done  
__has been done to him_

_cause hes been long gone  
__for so damn long  
__they swear he made it home-  
__but i keep holdin on_

_Cause its been four more  
__four more years than I  
__could take without him in my life  
__im no stranger to the pain  
__cause i've cried  
__more tears in four years  
__than i'll  
__admit-i just cant see why  
__someone would take away his life  
__i guess its been  
__Four years-four years since i  
__never got to say goodbye  
__i never got to say goodbye…"_

Tears burned in her eyes as she remembered him. He had been her cousin; only 28 when he'd died in a car accident. She hated it.

"_La da da  
__La da da da  
__La da da  
__La da da da_

_everybody called him crazy  
__when he swore that he could fly  
__but if i could fly with Casey  
__or get some sleep at night_

_Cause its been four more  
__four more years than I  
__could take without him in my life  
__im no stranger to the pain  
__cause i've cried  
__more tears in four years  
__than i'll  
__admit-i just cant see why  
__someone would take away his life  
__i guess its been  
__Four years-four years since i  
__never got to say goodbye…  
__i never got to say goodbye…"_

She took a moment to gather herself after she finished the song before attempting a smile for the few people who bothered to clap.

"You okay?" Holden asked as he moved the guitar off his lap.

Aria nodded. "Thanks for doing this with me. I really needed it."

He nodded, smiling at her. As they stood, he hugged her. "I know you're going through a lot of tough stuff right now," he murmured. "But I'm still your friend, and I'm here if you need to talk."

Aria smiled once more at him as they parted. "Thanks, Holden."

She wiped away the tears on her face and walked off the stage. Ezra met her halfway through the crowd of people.

"What was that about?" He asked somberly.

Aria rubbed her hands up and down her arms before crossing them. "My cousin. He died six years ago in a car accident."

Ezra nodded; just once, and slowly. "I'm sorry."

Aria shrugged. "The driver who hit him was drunk, and he was high. They were both being reckless. But we were close, and it sucked when he died."

He nodded once more. Though he said nothing, and it didn't even show on his face, her words were a bit of a slap in the face. He hated the idea that he could the reason she would ever have to consider going through that again, if she ever found out about his addiction.

They returned to the table, where Spencer and Hardy were politely chatting. She was showing him something on her phone.

"Not exactly the kind of guy who owns a three piece suit," Hardy observed.

Spencer turned to look at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Hardy quickly shook his head, giving his typical boyish charm smile that had earned his way into so many girls beds in the past. "Nothing. Nothing at all. So, does every guy you date have to be rugged and a possible ex-murderer?"

"Toby didn't kill anyone," Aria said as she picked up a fry off of her plate. "And Spencer's more than dating him, so stop trying to get her to come home with us."

Hardy turned to look at her, feigning surprise at her accusation. "Why miss Montgomery. I can't believe you accuse me of such things."

Aria shook her head at him. She could see the wheels turning in his head already. For as little as she knew Hardy, she knew him well enough to know exactly how he'd go about this situation.

Sensing the tension, Spencer pushed up from the table. Fortunately, her phone gave her the perfect excuse to step away. "Melissa's calling. I'll be right back."

She walked out of earshot and Aria turned to Hardy. "I know there's nothing I can do to stop you, but I swear to god, if you screw up her relationship-"

"Who said I was going to do anything?!" He said incredulously.

Aria shook her head at him. "You've told me your college stories, remember? I'm no idiot."

His jaw dropped as if she was accusing him of things he'd never done before, but there was a hint of mirth in his eyes. She chuckled at the ridiculousness of his behaviour and shook her head.

"Just don't screw her up," Aria said finally. "Because if you screw her, I'll make sure you get screwed."


	9. Live In The Memories

_Chapter 9_

_Live In The Memories_

He watched the light dance against the wall as the wind blew outside the patio doors. The knot in his chest was so tight, it was as if the entire fucking world was coming down on his shoulders, and he didn't really know how to deal with it. There was still the option of how deeply he was going to dive back into his addiction. He'd certainly used it multiple times in the past few days, and the fact that it had been so easy for his mother to figure out got under his skin.

Silent tears rolled down his face as he watched the lights move more fuzzily, unable to see through the salty liquid coming out of his eyes. He felt a thousand different emotions weighing on him, from Aria's anger at his stupid comments, to how hard it was just to know the sun was going to come up in a few hours, and there would another day to fight through.

He inhaled a heavy breath, and the built up snot in his nose made a wet sound as he struggled to get air through to his lungs. He curled his fist around the small bag in his hand and rested his elbow against his knee as he dropped his head against his fist and closed his eyes, sending more tears down his face as he did so. The knot in his chest tightened more, forcing him to open his cracked lips to take in a breath.

_He stared at her as she pulled his t-shirt over her head before slipping back under the blankets. It was well past two AM. The last thing he remembered was burying his face in her neck after she'd turned her back to him so that they could spoon. _

_He'd never meant for their relationship to come this far before he told her everything. There was so much she didn't know, but the part of him that was so desperately in love with her only wanted to protect her. It wasn't as if Michael had hunted him down and pounded the door down. _

_He shivered as she pulled the blankets up to get underneath them once more. Whatever the reason he didn't know, but she reached out and grabbed another shirt from the floor; a long-sleeved thermal, and tossed it to him. _

_He pulled it over his head and welcomed the warmth of a second body as she slipped back under the blankets and curled up against him. _

_He'd tell her in the morning. He had to. _

He jumped at the low sound of a rattling against the floor, but as his phone screen lit up, his hand trembled, reaching down for it. The number was unfamiliar, making him almost too afraid to answer it. The number was unfamiliar beyond the area code. It was a New York number.

He picked it up tentatively and brushed his thumb over the screen before lifting it to his ear. "Hello?"

"_About time I get a hold of you! I've been trying for weeks!" _

Every ounce of panic inside of Ezra slowly drained away at the sound of the familiar voice.

He'd met Cadence (she preferred Cady) in NA shortly after moving to Rosewood to go to Hollis. After returning to Rosewood from New York the previous September, they'd kept in touch, but it had waned as he spent more time falling for Aria, and he'd barely talked to her in more than six months.

"Sorry," he murmured. Thunder cracked outside the window as a heavy downpour began to beat against the house. The symbolism of how it compared to his life – full force with no forewarning – made the knot in his chest tighten once again.

"_I've been calling for weeks. Why hasn't anyone answered my calls, Ezra?" _

She sounded genuinely concerned, which didn't surprise him. There had been times when he'd been so close to returning to his life as an addict, and she'd pulled him back from the edge.

"Numbers got changed," he replied, cowering more into the cove that the cupboards on either side of him made. "Michael showed up in Rosewood."

"_Oh my god," _she murmured. Like a snap of fingers, suddenly her inflection dropped to a softer sound. _"Are you okay?"_

"Spent almost two weeks in the hospital," he spoke softly. Tears blurred his sight of the rain drops as he watched it bang against the windows. "He broke my wrist. Cut one of my arteries. Tried to kill me."

The dead silence over the line wasn't very comforting to him as the memories played through his head like a broken reel. His flashbacks were so vivid most of the time, that it was as if he was there again, on the floor trying to scream while they raped him.

"_How's your treatment going?" _She asked.

"Vicodin for the pain," he replied.

"_And what about cocaine for the emotions?" _Damn she was good. And straight to the point.

"It's… I don't even know," he said honestly. "I bought it. I've used it. But I don't know how far it could even begin to go."

If she had the inkling to yell at him, she didn't let it get anywhere, because there was no anger as Ezra held his phone to his ear.

"_What're you doing right now?" _She asked.

"Sitting on my girlfriend's kitchen floor, waiting for the sun to come up so I can actually get some sleep," he murmured softly.

"_Alright," _she replied with a sigh. _"Give me the address. I'm coming to you." _

Her ability to be quick and to the point was just as thick as her ability to be insistent about doing something when she said she was going to, so he rattled off the address to her before the call ended, and he resumed watching the shadows dance on the walls. They were more blurred by the rain, and occasionally lit up by the brightness of lightening, only to darken the room again moment later.

Eventually, his phone buzzed on top of his thighs where his legs were pressed together, and he picked it up, tapping a message to Cadence to follow the driveway around to the back deck when she had alerted him that she was there.

He only finally stood when her silhouette stepped in front of the light from the moon, and the light in above the door kicked in, lighting up part of her face. He walked over to the glass door sliding doors, and pushed one of them open, allowing her entrance. As he did, the thudding of heavy rain hitting the ground became louder.

She stepped inside a few moments later and pulled her rain coat off before turning to look at Ezra. Even with the just the worst of his bruising finally fading away, and the few stitches left to be removed, she could read his face like a book. She could see what had already faded away, by the way it affected his demeanor.

Ezra stared back at her for a few moments, taking in the sight of the woman in front of him. She was still short enough that he could rest his elbow on her shoulder, and her hair was still chocolate brown, but her hazel eyes had the ability to make him feel like she was seeing right through him. It was an unnerving feeling that he'd never really gotten used to.

"Where is he?" Cady asked.

Ezra walked back over to the counter and sat back down on the floor, rubbing his leg as he did so. "In jail, under lockdown so that no one kills him."

She toed off her wet shoes before walking over to where he was sitting and sitting down next to him. She curled her legs under her. She picked at the nail polish on her fingers as she rubbed her feet against each other, trying to warm them. "So how did he find you?"

Ezra shook his head, still holding the small baggie in his hand. "I don't know. Hardy got jumped. Someone he was working with knew someone else and- I- It's all muddled. The guy thought that they were looking for me because Michael told them my mother kidnapped me and then I ran away from her and changed my name, or something like that. I didn't pay that much attention, but they sold him some story about how it wasn't safe and they were pretty sure Hardy knew something."

He paused, looking up at her. "You know I live my life with almost no trace anywhere out of Rosewood. Hardy has one picture from college that I'm in. **One. **But they figured that was enough, and they beat him bloody when he refused any information. They trashed his apartment, and then they came here. He- um- he threatened to kill just about everyone I love, unless I did what he wanted. So I did it."

"I guess I should be glad no one returned my calls," Cady said with a soft chuckle.

Ezra looked up at her and nodded. "Yes. You should be. He would've hurt you too; probably driven you back into your addiction."

"You really think he would've gone that far to get something from you?" She asked.

Ezra's gaze hardened at her. "Yes, I do. You know me almost as well as Hardy does, and he would've used any weakness against you that he could find. Given that you regularly attend NA meetings, that wouldn't have taken very long. And then he would've used it to hurt you, to hurt me. He doesn't just deal in threats. He's the kind of person that targets every weakness a person has, and uses it to his advantage until he's got what he wants. He did it to me for **years**."

Cady shook her head, running a hand through her tangled, curly hair.

They talked until well after the sky started to lighten – as best it could, given the storming happening outside – and both were surprised when the light suddenly turned on. Ella stopped suddenly in her tracks and blinked a few times, clearly surprised. Not entirely, given that finding Ezra on the kitchen floor was becoming a regular occurrence, but the petite brunette sitting next to him was a surprise.

"I already started the coffee," he said when Ella had calmed after a few seconds. "It should be finished."

Her eyebrows raised in slight astonishment. "**You **made coffee? With one arm?"

"I had a little help," he replied.

Cady waved. "I'm Cady. I insisted Ezra tell me where he was." She looked back at him and slapped his shoulder. "You don't hear from someone for more than a month, and you start to worry."

"I told you that you were better off," Ezra said insistently.

"Cadence!"

Ezra looked up along with Cady as Dianne walked into the room. The slightest sign of a smile pulled at the corners of Ezra's mouth as Cady groaned from the use of her full name.

"Your parents gave you the name of Cadence, and I will call you that until the day I die." Dianne said in reply to the groan.

"So how do you two know each other?" Ella asked as she filled a mug with coffee.

"We-"

"Had classes together," Ezra said before Cady could beat him with the truth. She looked at him quizzically, to which he gave a curt shake of his head. "She's super smart for a 23 year-old."

Cady chuckled, shaking her head. "Yeah, I'm **so **smart."

Ella nodded, adding creamer to her coffee before stirring it. She walked out of the room a moment later and headed back up the steps.

Cady slapped Ezra again, harder this time as she glared at him. "Lying about being a drug addict is one step away from denying it all together."

Ezra sighed, scowling at her. "Up until a few weeks ago, my entire life was a made-up story to everyone who didn't know me before college. They knew nothing about Michael, or anything else for that matter."

Cady shook her head at him. She rubbed a hand over her eyes and yawned. "I should go home and get some sleep. I won't ask you to promise me anything, because I know better than that right now…" She sighed, biting her bottom lip for a moment. "But just….don't do anything stupid, okay?"

Ezra nodded, moving up off the floor as he did. He winced at the ache his legs and hips from sitting on the floor for so long.

Cady slipped her coat on and then turned back to Ezra. "Give me a hug. You know, just incase you suddenly lose my number again."

Ezra chuckled, but then leaned down and accepted the hug. When they parted, Aria had walked into the room.

"I'll show you to the door," Dianne said to Cady. She led her out of the room, leaving Ezra standing in the kitchen with Aria. He stood there a moment longer in the stiff silence, and then walked towards the doorway.

"So now you've got a secret girlfriend I don't know about?" Aria murmured. Her voice was so low that Ezra just barely heard her.

He turned on his heel and looked back at her. "She's a **friend**. I've known her since I moved here, and she's never been anything more."

Aria shook her head, keeping her back to him. "Whatever."

_.,.  
No light, no light in your bright blue eyes  
__I never knew that life could be so violent  
.,._

Aria growled as she shoved her calculus textbook into her locker. Every time she tried to push one book back in, another fell or refused to fit back in.

"Did your locker do something to require an exorcism?" Spencer laughed as she leaned against the locker next to Aria's.

Aria glared at her as she slammed her locker shut. She huffed a moment later and leaned back against her locker, shaking her head. "No. I just…" She huffed again and turned her head to look at Spencer. "I thought I knew everything about Ezra. And then all of a sudden in the past few weeks, it's like I don't even know the guy I've been dating for the past year. I feel like every time I turn around, he's got a new secret, and they're just coming up to bite me."

"But you know he loves you," Spencer replied.

Aria nodded. "Yeah, he loves me. But that's **all **I know to be true about him now. I mean this morning, he was in the kitchen with some girl that I've never even _**seen **_before. I just…I can't help but wonder how many other things he's lying about. What else he might have locked up."

Spencer nodded, biting her bottom lip for a moment.

"What?" Aria asked. "I can see your wheels turning."

Spencer shrugged, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "Well I mean, you kept secrets from Ezra for a long time too."

"To protect him," Aria said defensively. "Mona and A-"

"Would've hurt him," Spencer finished for her. "I know. But that's the same thing as what he's doing for you. He's trying to protect you to keep you safe. Right?"

Aria bit her bottom lip, considering what Spencer had said. "I guess. I'm just afraid the next time I turn around, there's going to be another secret that I don't know about. What if he's got some other secret that **does **get one of us hurt? Or what if he gets hurt again?"

Spencer shook her head. "You can't control the future, Aria. And I know you hate when things come up and smack us in the face, but trying to control it is just going to make you nuts."

Aria sighed and shook her head again. "Then I need to do something else. Because if

I continue to let this eat me up, I'll lose my mind." She stepped away from her locker, and Spencer moved after her.

"What does that mean?" Spencer asked.

Aria shook her head, looking back up at Spencer. "It means that I'm going to find out who that girl was in my kitchen this morning."

Spencer's brow furrowed. "Are you sure that's such a good idea. She could be-"

"Be what?" Aria countered, stopping where she was standing. "Another secret? What if A finds out, Spencer? What if, god forbid, there's something worse than this, and A knows before I do? A is all for doing things that hurt us. What would make A more happy than to do something to hurt one of us with information we don't already have?"

Spencer shook her head. "I don't think this is right. But if it was Toby, I'd probably be inclined to do the same thing. Just don't do anything to get yourself hurt in the meantime."

_.,.  
My momma always told me be careful what you hold  
__Cause honesty's the only thing you'll ever own  
.,._

Aria looked around the room as she dropped her bag next to the edge of the dresser. She was grateful to have little homework, given the fact that midterms were just around the corner. Ezra was fast asleep on the bed, but given that the blankets were a mess and the fact that his left foot kept moving back and forth against the bed like he was trying to kick someone, she figured the dream probably wasn't a good one.

She walked over to the bed-side table and picked up his phone, watching him nervously for a few moments before she tapped on the screen and brought up his most recent messages.

**Cady: I'm gonna go to a meeting  
****And then get coffee. You up?**

**Ezra: Maybe. Haven't slept yet.  
****What time?**

**Cady: Five PM. Text me when  
****You're sure.**

Aria looked back down at Ezra once more and then tapped the small oval at the bottom of the screen and began to type.

**Ezra: Can you meet now? Need  
****to talk.**

She waited a few moments before the phone buzzed quietly in her hand, and another message pushed hers up on the screen.

**Cady: Sure. I'm at TWC. See u soon. **

Aria quickly deleted the messages and then settled the phone back on the table. She dared one last glance at Ezra before she walked out of the room and made her way through the house and up the stairs to her bedroom. She grabbed a sweatshirt from her closet before making her way back down the steps and made her way into the kitchen. Her keys were resting on the table, where she'd left them after returning home.

"I'm going out for a bit," she announced to her mother as she grabbed her keys.

Ella looked up from the stack of papers in front of her. "Alright. Don't be too long. I thought we could order in."

Aria noddedbefore turning and walking out of the room. She zipped up her sweatshirt as she walked out of the house and made her way over to her car.

Once in her car, she started it and pulled her seatbelt on before brushing her hair out of her face as she looked up at the rear-view mirror. She pulled out of the driveway a moment later and made her way back into town.

The Weather Centre was a coffee shop that had come to Rosewood several years earlier, but since the newer one had moved into town over the summer, it had lost a bit of business. Still, Aria enjoyed their coffee regardless.

She arrived at the coffee shop a few minutes later, and pulled her car into one of the parking spots on the street before she removed her seat belt and turned the car off. She could see the other girl from where she was sitting, though she didn't quite understand why she was sitting outside. I was early November, and freezing outside.

She began to wonder if she was making the right choice by arranging the meeting. She didn't know this woman, and she doubted 'Cady' knew who she was either. But the better half of her conscience was aching for answers – too afraid of not knowing something else that could come back to bite Ezra.

She pushed her car door open a moment later and got out before shutting it behind her and walking across the street. The closer she drew to the table, the more jumbled her nerves became.

Still, when she reached the table, the older girl didn't look up. She cleared her throat, and it seemed to catch her attention.

Cady looked up from whatever textbook she was reading, and the slightest bit of a smile formed on her face. "Hey. You're Ezra's girlfriend, right? Ar-…Ariana?"

"Close," Aria replied. "It's Aria."

Cady nodded. She extended a hand to Aria. "Cady." Aria shook her hand and a moment later, Cady smiled a bit more. "You're the one who texted me, aren't you?"

Aria nodded. She lowered herself onto the bench across from Cady at the table and tucked her hands between her legs in an attempt to keep them warm. Cady stared back at her expectantly, obviously waiting for Aria to say something.

"Is there something specific you wanted to ask me?" She said finally, when Aria still hadn't said anything.

Aria looked up at her quickly, and was surprised by the words that flew out of her mouth. "Were you sleeping with him before all of this? I mean I've never met you or even heard of you."

Cady chuckled, looking down at her closed textbook. "No. No, I um, I've never even **considered **that when it comes to Ezra. I've known him since he moved to Rosewood, but just as a friend." She was quiet for a moment, studying Aria's expression before she spoke again. "You're afraid of some other unknown secret coming out, right?"

Aria shook her head, chewing on her bottom lip. "I'm… Everything I thought I knew about him feels like a complete lie."

Cady nodded. "Yeah, he mentioned that he left out quite a few details. Look, at the end of the day, don't question whether he loves you, because he does. That's why he lied to you. He told me that much."

Aria nodded, exhaling a frustrated breath. "He knows everything about me. I feel like I know nothing about him. I don't even know how you two met. It seems like if he's known you for six years, then I should've at least heard your name once in the past year."

"Ezra and I met at Hollis," Cady said honestly. Regardless of the fact that she was leaving out certain details, that alone was true. "But I don't know what else he has or hasn't told you about his life. You may know things I don't and the reverse may be true about me. What I **do **know, is that fishing for answers this way probably isn't what's best for your relationship. I hate to be the kind of friend that preaches, but…just talk to Ezra. He'll open up to you when he's ready. At the end of the day, he just wants you to be safe."

_.,.  
Just a kiss on you lips in the moonlight, just a touch of the fire burning so bright  
__I don't wanna mess this thing up; I don't wanna push too far  
.,._

Though Aria wasn't entirely pleased with the few answers she'd gotten from Cady, she understood what she was saying, and knew that the older girl was right. Fishing for answers wasn't going to get her anywhere, and if anything, it was only going to further strain things between she and Ezra.

Still, it irritated her to no end that they couldn't simply communicate like had just a few weeks earlier. A part of her couldn't help but question if that had just been something made up inside her head – that he wasn't really communicating, but instead giving her simple answers. But the part of her that loved Ezra, insisted that wasn't the case, that he really did love her back.

She shoved her textbook into her bag and dropped it next to the bed, looking over at him as he tapped something on his phone screen. His eyes were red, but that had become a regular occurrence since he'd gotten out of the hospital, so she wasn't sure what to attribute it to.

"You saw Cady today?" He asked her as she moved to grab a pair of pajama pants from the basket of her clothing that was resting on the floor.

Aria looked up at him. "Yeah. What about it?"

He shook his head at her, seemingly appalled at her. "Do you just…hate me now? You can't ask me anything?"

She stood back up, mouth ajar as she struggled to find the right words for a few seconds. "I can't ask you anything, Ezra! You're not…"

"Not what?" He asked. "Perfect enough anymore? Good enough? I'm dumb? Stupid? Worthless? Please, tell me when to stop, because I've got plenty of adjectives-"

"No!" She yelled, now thoroughly frustrated. "I don't think any of those things about you! But I hate that everything about your life feels like a secret now! I hate that you never told me about any of this, regardless of why! And I feel like every time I turn around lately, I'm finding out something else about you that I didn't already know. All these people are coming out of the woodwork, and…"

She shook her head, shaking from how angry she was. "I tell you **everything**, Ezra. I don't keep secrets from you, and I assumed that went both ways in this relationship."

"Really?" He asked. "What about Jenna? Or A?"

Aria huffed, growling lowly as she shook her head.

"Do you just want to tell me how much you hate me now?" He asked. "Because it seems more like you just want everything I've ever done wrong to work in your favour, and whenever you do something wrong, I'm just supposed to swallow my pride."

"That is **not** fair, Ezra!" She screamed at him.

"It's true, Aria!" He yelled back. "How many times have I had to swallow things that I've done wrong and all but beg for your forgiveness, but when you do something equally as hurtful, I've basically been told to sidestep it all?!"

She shook her head at him. "I'm sorry I'm such a bad girlfriend!"

He shook his head. "I never said that-"

"No, you just want what you've done wrong in this instance to work in your favour, because you lied," she replied.

"I **never** lied to you, Aria!" He argued back. "I may have neglected to share information, but it was only ever with the intention of trying to keep you and your family safe!"

She shook her head at him. "No. You…" Her entire upper body shook as her tiny hands curled into fists. He could see the mixture of rage and pain in her eyes, and they were both competing against one another, trying to win out over the other.

He moved off the bed and walked over to her, brushing a hand across her face, wiping a tear from her eye as he did so. "I **never **would have kept this a secret this long if I knew what was going to happen. I would've told you everything."

She shook her head at him, sending more tears down her face as she blinked. "It doesn't change… There are all these people around you that I know nothing about. We've been together over a year, Ezra. I don't understand how it was so easy to withhold this information."

"It wasn't," he replied, dropping his hand from where it rested on her face. "I thought about telling you over and over, time and time again. But what good would it have done us, Aria? You would've been constantly looking over your shoulder, worrying about what was coming around the corner. I do enough of that for the both of us as it is."

She turned away from him again, shaking her head as a small sob wracked her shoulders. "I don't…This isn't…We're **not **_**supposed**_ to **be **like this."

Ezra gulped as he breathed low, shallow breaths. "So what then? Do you want me to go?"

Aria turned to face him as he sat on the edge of the bed. She walked over to him and rested her hands on his chest gingerly. "No, I want to **understand.** God, I can't even **tell **you how badly I wish I understood. But when I see you awake at 3 AM or when I hear you screaming in your sleep…I just feel guilty for not knowing how to help."

Ezra shook his head, taking several slow breaths, given that his throat now ached from arguing. "I don't want you to understand. If you understood why I feel the things I do now, it would mean you had suffered at least half as much as I have lately, and that's still way too much."

Aria's shoulders dropped as a look of defeat crossed her features.

Ezra gulped, lifting his hand up under her chin in an attempt to get her to look up at him. "I know I haven't been great about any of this. In fact I've done everything short of absolutely sucking at it. I'll try to be more forthcoming about it…But I need you to grant me the space and the opportunity to tell you those things. I can't be expected to run to you with every piece of information the minute it comes to mind."

Aria shook her head, sniffling. "I'm not even asking you to do that. I just…I want to know what's going on in your life, and what's hurting you. Don't I deserve that much?"

He nodded. "Yes. And I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," she whimpered. She wiped the tears from under her eyes as she sniffed once more. "And one more thing?"

Ezra nodded.

"Can we not have any more secrets between us?" She asked nervously. She'd tell him about A…eventually.

Ezra gulped. His mind immediately went to his hidden drug addiction. "Seems only logical," he replied. "No more secrets."


	10. I Don't Miss It All That Much

**A/N: **Umm…I mentioned on twitter that when I'm hurting really bad and can't handle my emotions and start writing, bad things happen to characters. That's all I'm saying.

_Chapter 10_

_I Don't Miss It All That Much_

Aria stared at the wall, still trembling as she watched Ezra. She gulped and tried to shake off the overbearing feeling that had stuck with her for the better half of the afternoon. Any other time she would have known better and thought to ask more questions but with the return of A and all that had gone on recently she'd simply gone with her gut and acted first, asked questions later.

She could see the trepidation in his eyes as he stared at the floor, obviously trying to contemplate something. She wasn't sure exactly what it was, which only further drove her emotions, even as her mother sat next to her, trying to calm her.

It was funny. The moment they'd found her, the first question they had asked her was whether she'd been hurt, and every minute she'd been gone, she had wondered how she would have to answer that question. She'd been so sure that the answer would end up being yes.

_Aria munched on a piece of toast as she scribbled a note on the top of her calculus sheet. Ezra peered over her shoulder as he pulled a piece of bacon off her breakfast plate. _

"_That's wrong. The differential-" _

_Aria waved her hand at him, slapping her hand against his shoulder as she erased it and looked it over. A moment later, she rewrote the problem and figured the proper answer._

_Dianne walked into the room and settled a carrying tray on the counter. She pulled them out and handed one each to Ezra and Aria and took another for herself._

_Ezra leaned across the table, peering at the sheet Hanna had left lying out before she disappeared into the bathroom with her make-up bag. _

"_Three of those problems are wrong," he said with a laugh. He lifted his coffee to his lips and took a long drink from it. _

"_You know it's irritating when you hover like that," Aria murmured as she checked her homework over a final time. _

_Ezra chuckled. He kissed the side of her head and turned to walk out of the room, only to surprised by Ella walking into the room with Ashley and Darren. His jaw slackened slightly, unsure of why there would be the need to have a meeting at seven AM._

"_What's going on?" Dianne asked as she removed the lid from her coffee cup and stirred it a bit with the stick that had been placed in the top of the lid to preserve the heat. _

_Detective Wilden was about to speak, but Ashley cut him off, curious of Hanna's whereabouts._

"_She's in the bathroom," Aria explained. A few moments later, heels clacked on the floor, and Hanna walked into the room. She settled her makeup bag on the counter and took a coffee when it was offered to her. _

"_Now that the powwow has commenced, what's going on," Ezra asked nervously._

_Darren dared a glance at Ashley, and then looked from Ezra to Dianne before he spoke. "I got a call this morning that there was some kind of fight late last night. Michael escaped." _

_Silence fell over the room as everyone digested what exactly that meant. _

"_What are we supposed to do?" Aria asked nervously after a few moments. "I mean, we can't keep missing school-"_

_Darren shook his head. "You're right. But you shouldn't be alone at any given moment. This man and the people he's associated himself with are police officers, among other things. They know how to corner you into a situation you can't get yourself out of. Give them an opportunity, and they'll gladly take it."_

_Aria gulped and turned to look at Ezra. His emotions were clear on his face. _

"_I mean it," Detective Wilden said firmly, bringing her attention back to him as he looked at Aria specifically. "This man has used you to his advantage before, and after how things ended for the last time he went after Ezra, I wouldn't put it past him to take more drastic measures this time. Not even the __**slightest **__step out of line. Alright?"  
_

_Aria nodded nervously exhaling a shallow breath. _

"_We should get going ladies," Ella said as she picked up her bag from the floor. "You don't want to be late for school."_

_"No," Ashley agreed. "You don't. And as Detective Wilden said, stay near each other."_

_If there was any inkling to ague with the adults, Aria and Hanna buried it as they followed their mothers out of the house and then got into Ella's car. The car ride to Rosewood High was quiet, save for the sound of the radio. When they arrived at the school, they walked in together, and Aria Hanna split from Ella only when she was approached by another teacher._

_They headed off in the direction of Spencer's locker, and spotted Emily and Paige standing nearby, talking to her about something. They walked up as Paige turned to Emily and said something before walking away. _

"_Does Paige not want to be around us?" Aria asked as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder._

_Emily shook her head. "She has to speak with Coach before the day starts."_

_"You guys have a fun sleepover?" Spencer asked teasingly._

_Aria rolled her eyes. "My mother hovered by my bedroom door until we fell asleep, and then Ezra was correcting our homework like a proper teacher this morning." _

_Spencer and Emily chuckled, hearing the disdain in Aria's voice. It was much like that of a teenager determined to break out of the mold set around her __–__ the things she __**should**__ be complaining about. _

"_I'll just be glad when all of this is over," Hanna admitted. "Wilden needs to leave my family alone once and for all." _

"_I'm sorry, Han," Aria murmured sadly. _

_Hanna shook her head, looking back at Aria. "Don't be. It's not you, and I don't blame Ezra. It just seems like Wilden is using all of this to get back in my mother's good graces." _

"_Is that even possible?" Spencer asked with a raised eyebrow._

_Hanna rolled her eyes. "Apparently. She's been quite corkial with him lately." _

_Spencer, Aria, and Emily laughed at her. _

"_The term is __**cordial**__, Hanna," Spencer chuckled. _

"_Whatever!" Hanna said insistently. "Can we just talk about something else?" _

_Silence fell amongst the four of them as they each dwelled on the current things going on in their lives. Between Hanna's issues with her mother seeing Wilden again, and Spencer's increasing issues with Toby. Emily seemed to be having things easiest, but even at that, Nate's increasing determination to get with her was frustrating her as well. _

"_I swear we had more to talk about when Mona was around," Hanna muttered. The comment quickly earned her a glare from her friends. "What!?"  
_

_The other three girls simply shook their heads at her as Spencer adjusted her bag on her shoulder, and Emily picked hers up from where it laid against her leg. They turned and walked to their first class together before separating to head to their own seats. _

_.,.  
I can do so much better than this; I know, I know, I took the easy road again  
__And as for selling myself short, I have become notorious  
__.,._

She remembered how she'd spent most of the afternoon looking over her shoulder and out every window, wondering if every idle car she saw in the street was the one that would have someone inside it carrying a gun, with a bullet meant for her.

She remembered checking her phone during every passing period that came, staring silently at the empty inbox. She couldn't help but wonder if that was a good thing or bad thing. After all, she hadn't received a message from Ezra the day that Michael had made him trade his own life for her fathers. Even so, she tried to keep it in her head that Dianne would have called if something had happened. Or Wilden. Or Ashley. There were too many people around that if someone got hurt or went missing, that she'd already know.

_Aria flipped her textbook shut and pulled it off the island before stuffing it into her school bag. She snatched an orange from the bowl in the middle of the table and began to peel it. The tension from the day had planted itself in her neck and between her shoulders, causing a headache so bad that she wanted to crawl in a hole and hide from all sense of light. _

"_Here," Dianne said as she settled a bottle of mountain dew on the island along with two Excedrin tablets. "This should help." _

_Aria thanked her and snatched the medication and bottle from where it rested. She quickly popped the tablets in her mouth and then gulped them down with a large swig of the soda. _

"_Drink it quickly," Dianne told her. "It'll kick in faster." _

_Aria did as she was told and then tossed out the empty soda bottle into the trash. She returned to the table and resumed peeling her orange before she tossed that away as well. Once she had, she settled back at the table and began peeling apart her orange. She gave half to Ezra and began eating what she had kept for herself. _

_True to Dianne's word, by the time she finished what was left of her orange, the pain reliever had started to kick in. Ezra rubbed his good hand up and down her back as he chewed the last bit of his half of the orange. _

"_You okay?" He asked when he'd finished chewing. _

_Aria nodded, rubbing her temples. "It's starting to kick in, but it still hurts." She turned and looked at him a moment later. "What's got you so serene?"  
_

_Ezra gulped, having to remind himself that there was no way that she could know about the cocaine sitting in the box in the guest room. If she __**did **__know, there was no way she wouldn't have already said something. He could feel his mother's gaze on him from where she stood across the room, which only further made him nervous. _

"_Vicodin hits pain pretty good," he finally replied a few moments later. "But trust me, it's not perfect by a long shot." _

_Aria stared at him for a long moment, considering his comment. It brought up a myriad of thoughts about the way she'd seen him act in recent weeks, but before she could actually speak, her phone went off inside her bag. _

_She pulled it out and tapped on her screen a few times, bringing the message up that she'd just received. Her bottom lip became planted in her lip as she stared at the message. _

_**Bad fight with Toby.  
**__**Meet me, please.  
**__**-Spencer**_

_Aria stared at the screen for a few long moments before typing back a quick message. _

_**Give me a few minutes.  
**__**I'll be there.**_

_She tucked her phone into the pocket of her jeans and moved off of her seat. "Spencer just texted. I've gotta go meet her." _

_Ezra looked over at his mother. "Is that safe?"_

_Dianne shrugged, wiping her hands off with a towel as she turned the sink off. "I don't see why not. Things have been quiet all day." She paused for a moment as she reached into her pocket and brought up her phone screen. "No new messages that anything has changed. Just take your phone with you. Make sure the GPS is on, and your wifi. If you're anywhere with public access and he __**does **__get to you, we'll be able to find you." _

_Aria nodded, looking down at her phone. It went off a second time, lighting up the screen once more. She tapped it and brought up the messages once more. _

_**Wright park.  
**__**I need some air.**_

_She quickly typed back that she'd meet her there before tucking her phone into her pocket and moving off the stool. She quickly pecked Ezra on the lips before making her way out of the house and over to her car. _

_The drive to the park was quick; it wasn't far from her home as it was. The sun was just beginning to set, and the little bit of heat that had covered the city over the past few days was quickly sucking out as the sun dropped towards the horizon. _

_When she arrived at the park, she found that Spencer hadn't yet arrived, so she walked across the street to a coffee shop and got herself a cappuccino before she headed back to the park. She turned the cup slowly in her hands to keep them warm as she walked around the perimeter of the park. _

_Her phone chimed again in her pocket, and she pulled it out once more. _

_**By Alison and Ian's tree.**_

_Aria looked off in the general direction that Spencer was referring to and then made her way over, still holding her coffee tightly in her hands. _

_Her brow furrowed increasingly as she reached the tree. She looked around, but found no inclination that Spencer was there. Her nerves quickly began to mount, and she turned on her heel, ready to head back to her car. _

"_Walk any farther away, and I promise I'll shoot you. Turn around."  
_

_Aria gulped at the cold sound of his voice. She did as she was told, turning nervously. As she did, she came face-to-face with Michael Fitzgerald. Her hands trembled as she stared at the older man. If she had ever wondered what Ezra might look like if he was completely ruthless and had no respect for human life, __–__ she never had __–__ then it was clearly standing right in front of her. Her skin crawled with that thought. _

"_What do you want me to do?" She asked. "I'll give you anything but Ezra." _

_Michael chuckled. The sound nauseated her. _

"_That's alright, darlin. He'll come to us." _

_Michael waved his gun off in the direction of Aria's car. "Let's take a drive." _

_Aria nodded nervously. She moved to turn around, only for Michael to press his gun into the base of her back. _

"_Hand over your keys and your phone." _

_Aria dropped her coffee to the ground and then pulled her keys and cell phone from her pockets before passing them behind her. _

_They made their way across the park, but Aria knew enough about Michael to believe that there was no way he would let the gun actually be visible to the public. _

_When they arrived at her car, he followed her around the car and opened her door for her before shutting it and rounding the car. He got into the driver's seat and started the car before starting it. _

_Tense silence was all that passed between them as they made their way through town. Aria knew where they were headed long before they reached the hotel. She stared silently at the passing scenery, trying to figure out how she could get away from Michael without her killing her, Ezra, or their families. _

_When they arrived at the hotel, she got out of the car as she was ordered to, and followed the older man up the steps to the second floor of rooms. Her stomach knotted when he finally told her to stop in front of one of the doors. He unlocked the door and then shoved her into the room. _

_Aria trembled as she looked around the room. Regardless of what the police had probably told them they would need to do to get the place cleaned up and in working order, they had obviously looked for the easiest way to get the room back to where they could rent it out. _

_Like how instead of replacing the carpet, it had instead been scrubbed until only faint differences in the carpet showed, where there had previously been blood stains soaked into the floor. Bargain furniture had replaced the things that had been broken and absolutely needed replacing. _

_What made her most nauseated however, was the spots where she could clearly see spackle had been used to cover where chains had hooked into the walls and floor. _

"_Take a seat," Michael ordered. "We're going to be here for a while as it is." _

_Aria sunk down into a chair near the table, though her gaze quickly fell to, and stayed on, his gun. She hadn't even thought to wonder previously if the gun was loaded, and that fact irritated her as she realized that she was stuck in a hotel room with a sociopath._

She stared at her phone in his hand, and brow furrowed, confused. "How did you-"

"_Know how to get you out of your house?" Micheal chuckled. "Sweetie, I have my hands dipped into departments all over the eastern seaboard. You take a job in my line of work, and you've got help in all the right places." _

"_So you just picked a random person out of my phone book," Aria surmised. _

_Michael laughed again. "You know, Ms. Montgomery, it really is __**very **__easy to find out the things you want to know about people. Your family and your friends are that much easier, when you're constantly in the press. Dead best friend, other friends named as people of interest…In fact, what surprises me most is the fact that __**you **__have never been named as a person of interest." _

_He pointed the gun at her as he spoke the last sentence, and Aria felt a division of ice cold chills running down her spine and fury burning through her that he would suggest such a thing. _

"_Alison was one of my best friends! I would never-" _

"_It's ironic," Michael cut her off yet again. "I mean if I was on the case, I would have certainly looked at the girl whose family took off for over a year. But then, your little city can't even process basic evidence properly."_

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aria growled.

_Michael began to type on her phone. He looked back up at her. "It means that your city's police department managed to screw up a simple blood test on a sweater and let a psycho get away." _

"_Toby Cavanaugh is not-" _

"_Who __**you**__ think he is," he replied. "And neither is my son. You should really ask him about his fondness for white powder sometime. Now would you mind terribly shutting up? I have to make a phone call." _

_Aria shook her head, clenching her jaw so tightly that it actually began to hurt. "How can you hate something that was born for you to love?" _

_Michael ignored her as the phone rang. When it picked up, he smiled. He pulled it away from his ear and turned on the speaker so that Aria could hear. He lifted the gun to his lips and pursed them, signaling for her to stay quiet. _

"_You're so trusty," he said sickeningly._

"_What do you want?" Ezra asked in return. _

_Michael grinned. "I'll text you the address." _

_He ended the call a moment later and began to type on the screen once more. When he was finished, he looked back up at her. "To answer your question, it's very quite simple. That boy has never done anything worthy of making me give a __**damn **__about him." _

_Aria raised her eyebrows, utterly floored by the comment. "Seriously? He spent the first twelve years of his life being abused by you, and then still managed to survive. He graduated from high school and college with honors, was a college professor until __**you**__ got him fired…He's a parent's __**dream**__!" _

_Michael shook his head as he walked over to her. "No. He isn't worth a god-damn thing." _

_.,.  
And I know it's long gone, and that the magic's not here anymore  
__And I might be okay, but I'm not fine at all  
.,._

_Ezra's hands trembled at his sides as he stared at Michael. _

"_Ezra, please-" Aria cried, staring at the gun that Michael was still pointing at her. As much as she had hoped and prayed that he wouldn't show up, he did anyway._

"_Shut up," Michael growled as he turned his gun in the direction of his son. It was lost on Ezra how the older man had managed to get a new gun so soon. _

_Michael waved his gun at the table in the corner of the hotel room. There was thick brown rope lying on top of it. "Tie her up. She can help you." _

_Ezra stared at the rope for a moment, but he was all too aware of the gun and the last time he'd come in contact with one. It made his skin crawl as he moved over to where Aria was seated. He picked up the rope and then turned to the chair and began to tie her hands behind it, never entirely taking his eyes off the barrel of the gun as he did. _

"_Why keep her here," he asked nervously as he tried his best to hold the rope with his broken arm. _

"_She's got a stake in this. Maybe she'd like to watch. I watched you two enough as it was," Michael replied. _

_Ezra was pretty sure he wanted to vomit, but he struggled to keep it together as he stared at the older man. _

_Once he was finished with tying Aria's hands to the chair, he walked back around the chair. Michael waved the gun to directly in front of him, and Ezra moved to the spot. _

_Aria whimpered and tugged on the ropes binding her hands. She couldn't hear what Michael was saying, given that his voice was spoken extremely soft, but she could see the malice and cruelty in his eyes. _

_Within seconds, his gun connected with the side of Ezra's face, knocking the younger man to the floor. He went down on top of him and hit him several times before Ezra managed to somehow fight back. From the angle they were lying, Aria couldn't see much, but she watched as Michael flew off of Ezra and the gun slid across the room until it came to rest under her chair. She began to shift it, trying to move so that he couldn't get to it._

_Michael was faster, though, and he soon had his hand on the gun. Just as quickly, Ezra was on his feet, and for the first time since he'd gone missing, Aria saw another emotion besides despair in his eyes. Unadulterated rage clouded his blue eyes, darkening them as his foot kicked back and then swung forward and connected with the older man's rib cage. He continued kicking until Michael caught his leg and pulled him down, falling onto his back. Ezra straddled him as he continued to hit the older man. _

"_Ezra!" Aria screamed as she saw Michael lift the gun from where he was holding it. _

_Ezra's free hand stopped swinging and wrapped around the barrel of the gun, shoving it forward with just barely enough time before it went off. Michael continued to pull the trigger, but the gun only clicked as he did, signaling that the magazine was empty. _

_Ezra began to laugh, and the gun was tossed to the side as Michael had no other use for it, and Ezra's grip had loosened. _

_The distraction of laughter, even only for a split second, was all that Michael needed to take the upper hand once more. They rolled over once more, and Michael pinned Ezra's good arm above his head as he leaned down and forced his forearm down against Ezra's throat, cutting off his air supply. _

"_I don't need a god-damn gun to kill you, you worthless piece of trash." Michael growled. _

_Even as Ezra strained to breathe, he could feel the bulge forming between Michael's legs where he was straddling him. He could hear Aria's cries as she struggled with the ropes that Michael had forced him to tie her up with. _

"_Please!" She begged in a loud cry. "I'll do anything, but please don't hurt him again!" _

_Michael looked up at Aria as Ezra squirmed under him. When his wrist started to loosen under Michael's grip, he pressed down harder on Ezra's throat. _

"_Darlin, you haven't got anything I want," Michael chuckled sickeningly. _

_Aria stomped her foot against the ground as tears ran down her face. She could see Ezra's ability to fight waning from lack of oxygen. Even so, Michael continued to apply more pressure until the younger man grew limp beneath him and he stopped fighting. _

_He released his grip as Ezra's eyes slipped shut, and watched as his son's chest rose and fell for only a brief few moments before he moved off of him and reached for the button of Ezra's jeans. He peeled it apart and then moved his fingers to the zipper and began to tug. _

_Had the cold breeze not hit Aria so roughly, she wouldn't have known the door opened until Michael dove back over Ezra, wrapping his hand around the younger man's throat once more. _

_She turned her head around as best she could, trying to see._

"_Give it up, Michael," Detective Wilden commanded as he reached for his radio with one hand while his other had a tight grip on his gun. _

"_One move, and I'll snap his neck," Michael argued as Ezra groaned under him. Aria's eyes diverted to him as his eyes began to flutter. _

"_You know I'll put a bullet through your shoulder before I'd let that happen," Detective Wilden replied. "Now get up and step back from Ezra." _

_Michael only applied further pressure on Ezra's neck; not enough to kill him, but enough to cut off his air supply once more. The look in his eyes clearly said that he was calling Wilden's bluff._

_The crack of the gun going off was so loud that Aria cringed, and she could see Ezra visibly wince as Michael's arm suddenly went limp, causing the older man to drop against him. He quickly shoved Michael off of him and scrambled away until his back was firmly planted against the wall near Aria. _

_Wilden and several other cops charged into the room, cuffing Michael and removing him from the room while Detective Wilden walked up to Aria and Ezra. He removed the ropes binding Aria's arms._

"_You both should go to the hospital," he told them as Aria shot up out of the chair, rubbing her wrists. _

_I'm fine," she insisted. "He didn't do anything to me." _

_Ezra pushed up from the floor, trembling slightly as he did so. "I don't need to go to the hospital. He just knocked me around a bit, and my mother is a doctor. She'll make sure I'm taken care of." _

"You should be alright," Dianne said as she secured a piece of tape on the light bandaging around her wrist. "We'll keep the bandaging fresh and I'll make sure they don't have you do anything in PE for a few days so your wrists can heal. I'll get you some ice to put on them for now."

Aria could see the distraction in her eyes and turned to look into the family room, where she was staring. Ezra was holding an ice pack to his cheek while Wilden was asking him questions about what had happened.

"I hate him," she said angrily as she looked back at Dianne.

"Who, dear?"

"Michael," Aria replied. "I mean, I hated him before, but…" Her voice trailed off as she turned to look back at Ezra and Wilden. "When I saw his total disregard for Ezra's life tonight." She turned back to look at Dianne. "I've never seen someone so hateful about another person. Not even when everything happened with my friends and me being stalked."

Dianne nodded, walking over to Aria with two small icepacks wrapped in wash cloths. She handed them to Aria and then began to pick up the things that she'd taken out of her medical bag, and placed them back inside of it.

"I've never understood how the man I married could be so cold to his own child." She paused for a moment, and a look that Aria could only understand as unadulterated pain filled her eyes for the briefest moment before she seemed to bury it. "Sometimes I wonder if maybe I made myself blind to what he was doing until I couldn't anymore."

Aria shook her head, standing on her own two feet. "I can't believe that. Even if I wanted to, I've seen you with him. Being blind doesn't seem possible coming from you."

Dianne chuckled, patting Aria's upper arm. "You're too sweet."

They both turned and looked back into the family room, only to be confused by the fact that Wilden was no longer in the room.

Aria walked into the family room, closely followed by Dianne with her bag. She sat down next to Ezra, still holding the icepacks against her wrists.

"Where did Wilden go?" Dianne asked.

"He stepped outside," Ezra said gruffly. He winced, and the bruises on his neck made it clear why. "Someone called."

Dianne nodded. She walked over to Ezra and settled the bag on the table before reaching into it and pulling out a pen light. Ezra rolled his eyes as she turned it on, but let her flash it in his eyes and check him over enough to satisfy her own worries.

Detective Wilden walked back into the house a few moments later as he was tucking his phone back into his pocket. He inhaled a deep breath as he walked up to them.

"What is it?" Dianne asked.

He seemed to contemplate whether it was right to answer her for a few moments before he spoke. "Michael was taken to the infirmary upon arrival from the hospital so that he could be held over for observation. I don't know the full story, but it seems that one of the other convicts got to him."

"Okay?" Ezra and Dianne asked simultaneously.

Wilden looked back and forth between them. "He's dead. Exsanguination seems to be the primary cause."

"Exsanguination is…" Aria's voice trailed off.

"Bleeding to death," Ezra finished for her. She watched as his gaze dropped to the floor, inhaling and exhaling in slow, deep breaths as he tried to digest the information. A moment later, he pushed up from the spot he was seated in and walked out of the room, down the hall to the guest room. He shut the door tightly behind him and then walked over to the box that held his stash of cocaine. He retrieved one of the bags, popped it open, and the poured it out onto the nightstand.

Without a second thought, he removed the rolled-up dollar bill he had taped to the side of the small bag and then placed it against the table and began to inhale as he moved it in the direction of the line of coke.


	11. I Dream You're Still Here

**A/N:** So, when I started this story, I originally intended it to be Ezra-centric and be what seems to be my general length for stories (about thirty chapters). As it is, this story has so many different interferences with characters that it's become more of a general story in terms of characters. The plot is still going to move forward, but it's also going to be moving forward with the involvment of Hanna, Caleb, Spencer, Hardy, Toby, Emily, and Paige, as well as some of the parents.

_Chapter 11_

_I Dream You're Still Here_

It was rare that Ezra managed to sleep through a full night without waking up in a cold sweat from a nightmare, or simply because he was covered up too much. While getting high aided in his ability to sleep, it certainly didn't solve the problem entirely. Yet as rain slapped hard against the windows the next morning, he still hadn't moved from the bed as the clock ticked towards noon.

Dianne pushed the bedroom door open wider a few inches as she peered into the bedroom. She had to squint in order to, but she could visibly see the rise and fall of Ezra's chest, signaling that he was in fact still breathing. She couldn't help but be nervous when she'd seen how blown his pupils had been after he'd gotten high. She had barely slept the night before, constantly worrying that she'd find him dead in the morning. It didn't help that Ella and Aria had no idea what was going on, leaving them entirely confused as to why she was acting the way she was.

She sighed and turned to walk away, pulling the door shut behind her. She made her way through the house until she was standing in the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee. Once she'd added the proper amount of sugar and creamer, she walked over to the doors that led out to the patio and watched as the rain pounded against it.

There were many times she had questioned in the past if it was her fault that Ezra was suffering the way he was. She couldn't help but wonder if she'd spent less time devoting herself to her career, that she would've seen what she the signs that she had instead turned a blind eye to.

It wasn't as if they were glaring on their own – it became obvious when you strung them together. Like how Michael often told her that Ezra had somehow managed to get hurt one way or another. Or how when she was around, Ezra absolutely refused to be anywhere near Michael. Even when they were having family time and she would suggest he take the middle seat on the couch. Ezra would sooner fight in order to be sent to his room than sit next to Michael.

She remembered the multiple times she'd walked into the house in between shifts and found them together on the couch. Michael had a thing for resting his hand on Ezra's knee or thigh, and she'd always assumed it was a comforting gesture. It wasn't until they'd left Michael that Ezra had explained to her that it was his way of not getting caught, but also keeping Ezra from running away. Or when she would come home to find Ezra seated in Michael's lap…

She shook her head and turned away from the door, bringing her thoughts back to the present. A knock on the front door brought her the distraction she needed, and she was grateful for it. She walked across the house and smiled as she reached to open the door.

"Cadence, thank you so much for coming," she said softly.

"Please Mrs. Fitzgerald – call me Cady. And it's not a problem," she said as she stepped inside the house. "What's going on?"

Dianne shook her head sadly. "I'm worried about him. He… I don't even know how much he took last night, but his pupils were blown, and he was slurring when I sent him to bed. I kept getting up to check on him."

"Why not just take him to the hospital?" Cady asked.

"Because I know even if I took him there, even if I found and disposed of all his drugs, he'd just get more," Dianne replied. "He had no regard for what happens to himself anymore."

Cady frowned. "Is he…What happened?"

"Michael found a way to get to Aria through one of her friends, and used Aria to get to Ezra," she explained. Upon seeing Cady's expression change to one of fear, she continued. "They're all okay. He didn't touch Aria. He knocked Ezra around a bit, and he's got a few bruises, but he's otherwise okay."

"Is he back in jail?" Cady asked.

Dianne gulped as she stared down at the younger girl. "After we got Ezra and Aria back here last night, the detective on the case was here talking to Ezra. He stepped out to take a call…When he came back in, he told us that Michael had been killed in some kind of altercation last night back at the jail." She sighed. "If I hadn't gone in and actually seen his body this morning, I wouldn't have believed it. Anyway, that's not what's important. I'm worried about Ezra, and how he's going to deal with this."

Cady frowned, shaking her head. She slipped her jacket off and hung it up among the others near the door and then followed Dianne through the house to the guest room.

"He's just through the door," Dianne told her. "I don't know if he's awake, so I'd be careful."

Cady nodded. "I've been on the receiving end of one of his nightmare-driven punches before."

Dianne stepped around the younger girl and then walked away, leaving Cady standing there for a long moment. The young woman inhaled a deep breath and placed her hand on the door handle. She stood there for a few moments, trying to gather the strength to go in and talk to Ezra.

The fact that he was not only back on drugs, but taking them recklessly made her nervous. There was a time that she had known Ezra to say that he would never touch a bag of coke ever again. And while pills were her own personal addiction, she knew that there wasn't much she could do if he refused to see reason. She was only as good a sponsor to him as he claimed because they had **both **been committed to sobriety. She wasn't sure that she was so firm in her own sobriety that she was capable of staying from drugs for good. What was worse was that she knew she could easily be swayed into taking other drugs if offered to her.

Hell, everything had started her with a simple drag off a joint.

She pushed the door open after a long minute and then closed it behind her before walking over to the bed. She slipped her feet out of the boots she was wearing and then sat down on the edge of the bed. She shook her legs a little to take away the folds that had pressed in around the ankles from being inside her boots.

"Ezra," she murmured softly as she leaned over and shook his shoulder. She was gentle, careful not to do anything that would scare him. "Wake up."

"Didn't do it," he murmured in his sleep. "Don't hurt me."

"Ezra." She said his name a bit more firmly, rubbing her hand between his shoulder blades. "Wake up. It's a dream."

She could feel him tighten under her as his right hand fisted around the pillow under his head, and she knew that things were going to get worse if she didn't do something.

"Ezra," she said in a tone just barely below a growl. "Wake up, I need you!"

He groaned and seemed to rouse, if only the slightest bit. His eyes fluttered, but it was clear that the pain medication in his system still had some sense of a hold on him.

"Hey," she said a bit softer as she lowered down to his level. "You awake now?"

He nodded before wincing and bringing his arm up over his head.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Head hurts really bad," he replied softly, his voice raspy from sleep.

"I'll grab your mom," Cady replied before moving off the bed. She didn't trust herself to simply get the pain reliever from Dianne.

She exited the room a few moments later, only to bump into Dianne as she stepped into the kitchen.

"Something wrong?" Dianne asked.

"He says he has a bad headache," Cady replied.

Dianne's head turned as she looked up at the clock, and then she nodded. "I'll be in, in just a moment."

Cady turned and walked back into the bedroom, sitting back down on the bed next to Ezra. He had moved up onto the pillows a bit, leaning back against the bed frame in the slightest.

Dianne walked into the room just as Cady settled on the bed and walked over to Ezra.

"How dizzy are you?" She asked as she settled on the edge of the bed.

"Not much," Ezra responded. "My head is killing me, though."

Dianne nodded. "Well, you said he knocked you around pretty good, and a concussion takes a few weeks to heal. Maybe now that he's dead, we can lay that to rest for good."

Ezra stared at the floor, keeping his attention on the ground.

Dianne sighed, apparently aware of the fact that he wasn't going to say anything. She knew there was a chance that he could react badly to his father's death, but until he actually indicated **what **that reaction was, she didn't know how to respond.

She pulled a bottle of pills from the pocket of her sweater and opened it before handing him two. "This should help."

Ezra stared at the pills for a long moment before he tossed them back and grabbed the glass of water from the nightstand. He gulped it down and then settled the glass back on the nightstand.

Dianne exited the room a moment later, and pulled the door shut until it was only ajar once more.

"Why did she call you?" Ezra asked a few minutes after when the painkillers had started to kick in.

"Because she's worried about you," Cady replied. "She said you were slurring your words by the time you went to bed last night."

"Was I?" Ezra said. His words were empty, indicating that he really didn't need an answer. "Guess I shouldn't have taken so much."

"Are you entirely giving up on your sobriety?" Cady asked.

Ezra looked up at her. "I've got no use for staying sober anymore. Is that a problem for you?"

Cady's brow furrowed slightly, clearly frustrated. "Actually, yes. I'm clean, but that's because I stay away from any situation that puts me near temptations. If you're going to continue taking drugs, then we can't be friends."

"Then I guess we're done here," Ezra replied dismissively.

Cady stared at him for a long moment, unable to hide the surprise at how easily he was shutting her out. She wanted to question whether he was serious about what he'd just said, but his body language made it clear that he was. Ezra wasn't going to change his mind.

_.,.  
I wanna call you mine, wanna hold your hand forever  
__And never let you forget it, baby I wanna make you feel wanted  
.,._

"Aria? Aria! Have you heard a word I've said!?"

Aria shook her head quickly, snapping out of her reverie and looking up at the wave of blond hair in front of her face as Hanna moved her head back and forth and waved her hands in front of Aria's face, clearly trying to get her attention.

"What? Sorry, Han." She sighed, mentally kicking herself as she dropped her plastic fork down onto her plate. "What'd you say?"

"I asked if you wanted to get coffee after school," Hanna said. "Where is your head at?"

Aria chewed her bottom lip for a moment, wondering what was safe to tell Hanna. She knew that her friend already knew the majority of what was going on currently with her relationship with Ezra, given that Ashley and Darren were apparently dating again. But beyond that, what could Aria really tell her that wouldn't upset the people in her life?

She sighed sadly as she thought about the night before. There were so many things that Michael had said that she couldn't get out of her head, but the one thing that wouldn't stop bugging her, was how he had so easily insinuated Toby wasn't the person they thought he was. Sure, Michael lived to fuck with her and Ezra's heads, but he also wasn't necessarily someone who lied about petty things, from what she could gather. So why mention Toby at all….

"Aria!"

"Damn it, Hanna, I'm so sorry," she whined as she snapped back to the present once more. "I didn't sleep well last night, and I can't stop thinking about last night…"

"Okay so no coffee after school," Hanna said deductively. "What is it about last night that's got you so distracted?"

"I don't know if I should say," Aria said softly. "I don't want to be wrong about it and then end up causing trouble."

"Is it about Ezra?" Hanna asked.

Aria shook her head. "For the first time in weeks, it's something that has nothing to do with Ezra. I guess that's 'why I'm clinging so tightly to it."

"A distraction," Hanna said as she nodded. "Is it about….Actually, what else would that man talk about besides Ezra?"

Aria looked around them, partially to assess who all was surrounding them, and partially to be sure that Spencer wasn't nearby. She wasn't even sure how she would even _approach _the topic of Toby to her.

"When I was stuck with him last night, he made this comment about Toby," Aria explained in a soft voice. "He said that Toby isn't the person we think he is."

Hanna stared at Aria for a long moment. "Are you saying that he said Toby is A?"

"I don't know," Aria replied. "And I know the second I even mention it to Spencer, she'll dismiss it. But what if it's true, Han? I mean it's a short list of people who are that close to us to begin with. And why would Ezra's father say anything about Toby otherwise? How would he even know him?"

"Unless he somehow was in cat boots with him," Hanna replied.

Even in the tenseness of the situation, Aria couldn't help the giggle that escaped her. "Hanna, it's 'in cahoots', not cat boots."

Hanna rolled her eyes. "**Whatever. **I don't think Spencer is going to care what kind of grammar is coming out of my mouth when we tell her about Toby._" _

"I don't know if we should though," Aria replied. "What if we end up being wrong?"

Hanna shrugged. "Have we really been right in any of our guesses about who A is?"

"All the more reason I think we should wait," Aria said nervously. "We don't have any proof that he has anything to do with what's been going on the past few weeks."

Hanna crossed her arms at Aria. "And what if he is? What if we're just letting him get away with hurting Spencer."

Aria shook her head, running a hand through her hair. "I don't know, Han. I mean if we're wrong-"

"If we're **right**," Hanna retorted. "What if we bury this and it comes back to get us? What if Spencer gets hurt?"

"Do you really think that Toby would hurt her?"

Hanna sighed. "I never even thought Toby could be capable of being 'A'. But if he is…If he's capable of hurting Spencer by saying and doing the things he's done in the past few months, then who knows what he's capable of."

"Still," Aria replied. "If we ended up being wrong, we could seriously screw things up. Or worse, what if we were right and we couldn't prove it. I'm sorry, but telling Spencer right now could screw things up seriously."

Hanna shook her head at Aria. "This is going to blow up in our faces, Aria. Someone is going to get hurt, and I just hope it isn't to the point where we can't come back from it."

_.,.  
Your beauty's deeper than the makeup  
__And I wanna show you want I see tonight  
.,._

Spencer stirred her straw in her drink, chewing on the end of her nail lightly as she read her physics textbook. Aria and Emily were supposed to meet her, but Emily had cancelled and gone to meet with Paige instead, and Aria had been acting odd all day, so she hadn't been entirely surprised when she got the phone call that Aria was going home instead of meeting her at the grill.

She took her hand off the straw of her drink long enough to turn the page of her textbook before she started stirring once more. She looked over at her phone momentarily and then picked it up and brought up the screen, as if willing it to ring. Even so, the screen stayed the same, and there was no buzzing or ringing.

"Expecting a phone call?"

Spencer looked up, and her brow furrowed slightly, confused by the sight of a very bruised face. After a moment, it sunk in that she was staring at Hardy, Ezra's friend. "What the hell happened to you?"

It was clear that it pained him to do so, but Hardy smirked at her. "Is that an invitation to sit?"

Spencer flipped her textbook shut and gestured to the chair across from her. Hardy sank down into it.

"So who beat you up?" Spencer asked.

"The same people who've been doing it for the past month," Hardy replied suavely.

Spencer's brow furrowed slightly. "It seems like really hard work to be friends with Ezra."

Hardy chuckled slightly. "Most people probably would think that, eh? Honestly, if it were anyone else, I'd probably agree too. But what he's been through, and who he is… it's not right."

Spencer nodded, continuing to move her straw in her drink absentmindedly. "I never thought that the guy who was teaching my English class at the beginning of last year would end up with this many secrets. Hell, I don't think I ever thought I'd know him this well."

"Believe me, when I first met him and he was acting like a choir boy, I didn't think that much of him either. But somewhere along the way, I was dumb enough to ask him to write a paper for me, and I got an A on it. I think there might have been a few beers involved in that…but we became friends, and he's been my conscience ever since."

Spencer laughed. "I have a hard time envisioning Ezra as a choir boy."

"Yeah…" Hardy drawled. "Okay, so maybe just more of a goody-two-shoes."

Spencer nodded, looking around for a moment. "Are we seriously sitting here talking about Ezra?"

Hardy grinned. His gaze quickly fell to her textbook, and his smile only widened. "You're taking Physics? Do you like it?"

"I guess," Spencer replied. "I'm kind of fascinated by the big bang theory."

Hardy stared at her, blinking for a few moments. "…The theory or the show?"

Spencer just giggled in response.

_.,.  
Well I was just a baby when Casey saved me  
__I always owed my whole life to him  
.,._

Aria turned a bottle of ibuprofen back and forth between her hands as she leaned against the wall behind her, waiting for it to kick in. Everything she had been thinking about since she'd woken up that morning had built up into one hellish headache and she was desperately hoping for a little bit of relief.

Even with pain reliever trying to affect, she knew the core of the problem wasn't going to disappear as easily. She had far too much on her mind from the things that had been told to her the day before, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to empty her thoughts.

"Aria?"

She looked up as Ella came to stand in her doorway and forced a smile. "Hey."

Ella nodded her head as a response to the greeting. "Dianne said you weren't feeling well?"

Aria shrugged, putting the bottle of pain reliever on her bedside table. "Just another headache. I'm okay."

"Is it everything that's happened in the past few days?" Ella asked as she walked into the room. She walked over to the bed and sat down across from Aria.

Aria shrugged again, pulling her legs up and crossing them pretzel-style. "Some of it. I've just got a lot on my mind. I'm trying to understand…. A lot."

Ella sat next to her quietly, giving Aria the time she needed to process. They sat silently as Aria stared at the floor, processing her thoughts yet again.

"I never thought that this was where I'd end up with him," Aria spoke softly when she had found her words. She looked up at her mother. "Does that makes me selfish? I mean, am I wrong for wishing he had told me all of this sooner?"

Ella shook her head. "Not at all. "I've wondered when this was all going to come down for you."

Aria chewed on her bottom lip, inhaling and exhaling in long, deep breaths in an attempt to keep herself from crying. "I guess a part of me wanted to believe that even with everything I've seen in the past few weeks, that one day I'd wake up and he might be who he was before. But I don't even feel like he was who he was, either. Now I just feel like it was all a show or something."

She was quiet for just a moment before she quickly looked up, adding, "not what he said…just…how he was."

Ella nodded. "Is that making you question whether or not you want what you have with him now?"

"Sort of," Aria admitted softly.

"Well then let me ask you this," Ella replied. "If you had met in the very same circumstances, but instead of waiting to tell you the truth about his life, he had told you on day five, or ten, or twenty… would you have left him?"

Instantaneously, Aria looked up at her mother and shook her head. "I already loved him."

Ella smiled sympathetically at Aria. "Then I think you've got the only answer you need, Aria. Everything else will resolve itself in time."

Aria thought, just for the smallest second, about telling her mother about what Ezra's father had said the night before, and about A and Toby, and everything that was plaguing her, but instead she stopped herself. There was always the constant realization and fear that if her family ever found out the things that A knew about herself and her friends, that the whole world could come crashing down. And she knew that as much as she and her friends tried desperately to stop keeping secrets, sometimes there were things a girl couldn't say.

Exhaling a soft breath, she smiled at her mother. "I'm going to see if Spencer wants to get dinner and maybe do some studying after all," she said.

Ella nodded, patting Aria's knee. She moved off the bed and walked out of the room, leaving Aria sitting in her room alone.

Once Aria was sure Ella was headed down the stairs, she exhaled a heavy sigh and leaned back against the wall as she pulled her knees up to her chest. A frustrated tear fell from her eye, but she quickly reached up and wiped it away as she wrapped her other arm under her legs. She didn't have the time or the energy to lose it right now. There were too many factors in play.

She'd only been sitting there for a few moments when she heard a knock on her door again. She quickly forced her typical façade into her expression and smiled as her door opened wider. Ezra stepped inside and waved languidly at her.

"Hi," she spoke softly.

"Hey," he said back in the same tone. "I was wondering where you were."

"Missing my bedroom," she lied as she shrugged her shoulders slightly. She leaned back against the wall again, bringing her arms up to rest between her legs.

Glances moved amongst the room as they sat there, each silent and never looking at each other at the same time. There were too many unspoken comments and unanswered questions, and Aria was sure that if she said something, she would burst like a dam. All the words would just come flooding out faster than she could stop them. So instead she sat silently.

"Are you upset with me about yesterday?" Ezra asked as he finally looked up at her, obviously curious.

Aria shook her head. "No."

"Then why do I feel like there's a distance between us that I can't cross over?" He asked.

Aria stared down at the floor once more, not sure how to respond to the question. She could feel the distance between them as well, partially because she'd put it there.

"Did I do something wrong?" He asked.

Aria looked up at him once more. She couldn't not ask him. She had to know. "Are you on drugs?"

Ezra's brow furrowed, obviously confused. "Vicodin, antibiotics, I…what?"

Aria sighed, realizing she'd have to get more specific. "Illegal drugs," she amended. "Do you have a drug addiction?"

Ezra stared at her silently, and the lack of an answer was enough to answer what Aria wanted to know.

"For how long?" She asked. She felt like there was a knife in her chest, learning this new knowledge. She hated that every time she turned around, there was something else she didn't know about him.

"It started when I was a teenager. I stopped and got into treatment after two years," he explained softy. She could easily hear the shame in his voice, and that only made her hurt more. "When he took me though…"

Ezra huffed, determined to keep himself in control. "He knew. He knew about things I wish he'd never have known about. And he used it against me."

"So why not get back into treatment after you got out of the hospital?" Aria asked. She knew even as she was asking that the answer wasn't as simple as the question.

Ezra was quiet for a few moments before he finally answered. "To be painfully honest? I didn't want to. I still don't want to. It's the one thing that keeps me calm and just makes everything…stop."

"And if that doesn't sound like the first thing an addict would say, I don't know what does," Aria replied shakily. Tears rolled down her face as she stared at him, unable to quell her own anger. "I don't even feel like I know you anymore, Ezra. And while I'm sitting here scrambling to find some shred of understanding, it just seems to get worse."

"Do you want me to leave?" He asked, in the same soft voice he'd spoken in so clearly for the past few minutes.

Aria whimpered as she brought a hand up to her face to wipe the tears away. "I don't really know **what **I want from this anymore."

Ezra nodded slowly, inhaling a sharp breath. "Then maybe we should take a step back. I don't want to hurt you more than I already have."

Aria gulped, staring up at him as he stood. She knew all the right things to say that would keep him there if she could just get them out of her mouth, but somehow the words were stunted inside of her as she watched him walk out of her room. She could hear his footsteps retreating, and then move down the steps as they creaked.

Unable to bury the ache any further than that, her hand quickly flew to her mouth as a loud sob pushed out of her chest. Her body trembled as her eyes clenched shut, biting down hard on her index finger as tears flooded through her clenched eyes.

She wasn't sure if her mother was actually in the room moments later holding her as she cried, or if it was just a vision of something she wished for as she sat there, trying to block out the entire world, including the sound of her own crying. She hated herself for the words she'd said, and simultaneously felt such irrevocable relief that she didn't know where she ultimately was falling. All she **did** know is that she didn't know at all what life could slap her in the face with next.


	12. I Tell Myself That I'll Be Strong

_Chapter 12_

_I Tell Myself That I'll Be Strong_

**2 Weeks Later **

Aria sipped longingly from her cappuccino as she lifted her bag higher on her shoulder, standing in the hallway of Rosewood High School. With Christmas hovering over her in the near future, she was focused entirely on getting through final exams without letting herself become distracted by other things. Or at least she was desperately trying to.

In all honesty, the past few weeks had been a struggle. It hadn't really hit her how much time she and her friends spent with their significant others until Ezra wasn't with her anymore, and it was making her realize just how much free time she had on her hands being single. That free time didn't do anything to comfort her though. Hanna and Caleb always had plans, and Emily and Paige were always off on some different adventure. Hell, even Spencer had Hardy keeping her company with Toby's lack of attendance in recent weeks.

That fact was something that still bothered her, too. Aria constantly kept in contact with Spencer if for no other reason than to make sure her friend was safe, but the answers to her questions rarely changed. No, Spencer hadn't heard from Toby all that recently. No, she didn't know when he'd back in Rosewood. No, she didn't have any new ideas about A.

The knowledge wasn't comforting to Aria. Even if Toby wasn't A, she couldn't imagine that he would be pleased to realize that in all the time he'd spent away, Spencer was growing closer to someone else. Which wasn't necessarily saying that Spencer **was **admitting to getting closer to Hardy. In fact, she really hadn't given much information at all. The tell had come more in the way Aria had seen them together the night before when she'd gone to pick up dinner for herself and Ella. She had seen Spencer and Hardy at the grill laughing. She could see the comfortable closeness that had formed between them. There was a lightness to Spencer recently as well, that Aria hadn't seen since long before Alison had been killed.

Still, her friends happiness was a bandaid at best to everything else that was going on in her life. She'd had no contact with Ezra since their split, and as much as she wanted to reach out to him, she didn't feel right doing so. She hadn't seen him since the day after they'd broken up, when he and Hardy had shown up to pick up the last of the boxes that had been left behind the day before when Hardy had come by to pack them up. The only reason Aria even knew it was Hardy was because her mother had told her. After explaining to her mother that she'd broken up with Ezra, Ella had ushered her out of the house to get her mind off of the situation, and had all but forced her to make plans with her friends the next day.

"Hi!"

Aria groaned softly as she pulled one of her ear buds out of her ear, not wanting to even look over at Spencer because she knew she'd see her smiling the same smile she'd been smiling for the past few weeks. "Please stop smiling."

When Aria was sure that her comment had probably cause Spencer to at least become visibly confused, she looked up at her.

"Okay, you know people seriously aren't going to enjoy you not wanting to see them smile just because you're unhappy, right?" Spencer said as she stared down at Aria.

Aria slumped back against her locker, pulling her other ear phone out and turning off her music before unplugging the earphones from the jack in her phone. "Am I that transparent?"

"It's pretty clear when you look at the ground any time you see anyone looking the slightest bit happy," Spencer replied. "You know there **is **life after- him. Right?"

Aria nodded slowly, staring down at her coffee. "I do. It just sucks. It seriously fits that analogy Error: Reference source not found you know, how everyone is got into the party but you?"

"You mean not being in a relationship?" Spencer said after a moment of recalling what she was referring to. Aria nodded.

"I hate to point out the obvious, but why not try getting out and doing something other than hiding in your bedroom?" Spencer offered. "Go out to a movie? Hang out at an arcade? Aren't you and Holden still friends?"

Aria laughed, shaking her head at herself. "When did I get so pathetic?"

"You're not pathetic," Spencer said insistently. "You're just single."

"Which is pathetic," Aria replied.

"No," Spencer insisted once more. She slipped an arm through Aria's and and pulled her away from her locker. "We should get to class. We can discuss your singleton issues later."

Aria huffed as she let Spencer lead her down the hallway towards the classroom. When they arrived, Aria walked into the room with Spencer and they each headed to their desks. She leaned over towards Spencer as she pulled a foot up under her leg. "I thought Mrs. Anderson wasn't out until next month."

Spencer chuckled. "That was **last **month. She went into labor over the weekend."

"So who's…."

Aria's voice trailed off as the door opened and a familiar head of black sight entered the room. His head was tilted to the side with a hunk of plastic Aria was sure to be a cell phone pinned onto his shoulder. There was a bag draped over his other shoulder and a box on his arm.

"You've got to be kidding me," Aria murmured just barely loud enough that she could hear her own voice.

Spencer looked up at her. "Aria-"

Aria shook her head, pushing up out of her seat and grabbing her bag. She looked down at Spencer only for a brief moment. "I'm sorry. I just can't."

She turned and scampered out of the room, just barely slipping past Ezra as she stepped out into the hallway. She dashed down the hallway to the bathroom and shoved the door open before making her way to a stall. She closed the door behind her and leaned back against it. Exhaling a heavy sigh, she closed her eyes and reminded herself to breathe so that she didn't start having an all-out fit.

As she stood there trying to gather her emotions, her phone buzzed inside her bag. She was sure it was Spencer texting her to ask if she was planning to come back to the classroom. She huffed, frustrated as she reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. She brought up the screen and opened the message.

_**Did I forget to mention Ezra's return to Rosewood?  
**__**Oops. Good thing you broke up already  
**__**-A**_

Aria shook with rage as she stared down at the screen. She truly hated A, and the fact that she was still questioning whether or not it was Toby made her seriously want to punch him in the face.

"Fuck you," she murmured under her breath. "Fuck it all."

_.,.  
But when I open my eyes, all I saw were your lies  
__I was born with a broken heart and you left me behind  
.,._

Aria spent more than an hour hiding in the bathroom, refusing to leave even after she knew the next class had started. She considered taking off and ditching for the day, but leaving school required leaving the room and possibly running into Ezra. It also meant that she'd risk ending up getting caught, and the last thing she needed was her parents getting upset with her because she was ditching school.

Even so, as the day continued to pass well into the second half of her second period, she knew she'd have to make a decision sooner or later. She couldn't very well hide in the bathroom all day after all.

"Aria?"

She sighed, letting her head fall back against the cool metal behind her head. "Yeah?"

"It's mom. Where are you?"

Aria opened the stall door tentatively and peered out. She spotted Ella leaning against one of the sinks a few feet away.

"How'd you know I was in here?" Aria asked as she tentatively exited the bathroom stall.

"Spencer might have mentioned that you never returned to class after finding out that Ezra was taking over while Mrs. Anderson is out on maternity leave," Ella replied.

Aria sighed once more. "How did he even get a job here? Isn't there a whole non-compete clause or something with leaving a job or something?"

"Well for one, he didn't leave here on bad terms," Ella explained. "And given that the principal knows limited information, but does know _**some**_ of why Ezra was let go from Hollis, he was willing to take Ezra on in the interim."

"But just until Mrs. Anderson comes back, right?" Aria asked.

Ella shrugged. "I honestly don't know, Aria. This is one of the many reasons why students shouldn't have relationships with their teachers, though." She paused for a few moments, reminding herself of the current situation. "Look, you can't change the current situation, and I've told you what I know. I imagine that it was easier to offer the position to someone who was available long-term."

Aria crossed her arms, chewing on the inside of her bottom lip. As much as her mother was trying to get through to her, the information that Ella was sharing with her was only further frustrating Aria.

"Would it be better for you to just take a mental health day?" Ella asked. "You can take my keys, and I'll get a ride home later."

Aria raised an eyebrow at her mother. "Are you sure?"

Ella nodded.

Though Aria was aware of how the situation looked to others, she didn't much care. Let people believe that she was taking off because she couldn't deal with Ezra's sudden return to Rosewood if that's what they wanted. It wasn't as if she hadn't been called a slut by the same student body assuming those things.

Half an hour later, she was at home curled up in her bed with her textbooks. Though she had taken the day off, she still made sure her work got done and that she did the same reading that her other classmates were doing. She could phone Spencer later in the day and talk about anything else she might've missed then.

By noon, she had all of her school work done and decided to take a nap. She snuggled down beneath her blankets and closed her eyes, determined to shut out the world for a few hours.

Her determination may have gotten her to sleep, but it was only an hour later when she was awoken by knocking on the front door. Aria kicked the blankets off in a frustrated manner. Curiosity was the only thing dragging her from her bed, given that she knew her father and brother would more than likely let themselves in.

She stomped quickly down the steps as she swept her hair back and out of her face, making her way through the sitting room and over to the front door. She suddenly stilled as she came to stand in front of the glass door and stared through it to the other side, where Ezra was standing.

Though drowned by the plated glass and wood between them, she could still hear his voice asking her to let him inside, and though she was tentative to oblige, she couldn't help but sense that her mother had probably arranged this somehow.

She reached forward and opened the door before gesturing for him to come inside. Ezra walked in and then turned to look at her as Aria pushed the door shut. "Can we talk please?" He asked.

Aria stared at him with the same frustrated look for a few moments before nodding. She waved off in the direction of the kitchen before walking to into it and over to the fridge in search of food.

"I wanted you to know that I had no idea you would be in any of the classes I agreed to take over for Mrs. Anderson," he explained as Aria stood with her back to him. There wasn't anything spectacular in the fridge that screamed at her to eat it, but after several minutes of quiet deliberation, she grabbed a box of leftover pizza and pulled it out.

"If I had known I was going to be in your space, I wouldn't have taken the offer," Ezra continued. "I meant what I said before. I don't want to be in your way. I don't want to hurt you in any way, Aria."

Aria sighed, tossing several slices of pizza onto a plate before putting the plate in the microwave to reheat. She turned and looked at Ezra. "What surprises me is that they even gave you the position. I mean doesn't the school require drug testing?"

Ezra's shoulders slumped slightly in a look of guilt. "Look, I'm still on a myriad of different drugs-"

"So I'm sure you just told them that the **cocaine** in your system was doctor prescribed, right?" Aria replied in an angered tone.

Ezra huffed, looking up at her. "Look, I can't change who I was before I met you. When I moved to Rosewood, my whole intention and purpose was to put everything behind me as much as I could. I hoped that the things that happened in the past few months **never would**. But they did. And when someone **forces** you to take drugs-"

"You still could've done something about it **after **it was over, Ezra!" Aria cried. Fury, anguish, and unadulterated pain were bursting through her like a dam as her knees gave out from under her and she fell to the floor in tears. She stared up at him as her hands curled into fists. "You could've gone back to…."

Her voice trailed off, and in the same instance, she could see the same rage she felt in his eyes.

"Go back to **what**, Aria!? To pretending that I'm not the kid whose dad molested him for years? To pretending that I don't know that most of the people running New York City are dirty? To believing that if I try hard enough, eventually I can make the past disappear!? It doesn't work that way!" Ezra growled. "Maybe the drugs are a vice. Maybe they won't solve anything in the end. But maybe right now, a vice is what I need, just to get through the nightmares and the fear and the pain…"

Aria shook her head as her chin dropped. She simultaneously loved and hated Ezra for being there with her in that moment. She wished to God that she could find the right words to tell him that everything that was bothering her wasn't solely his fault. She wanted to apologize for the distance between them, and scream at him for being reckless with his life at the same time. All of the emotion locked inside of her was too much to even begin to sort through.

The microwave beeped a few moments later, and it was the only sound that filled the room beside her soft sobs and Ezra's heavy breathing. She was afraid to look up at him for fear that she might find him in tears as well. She couldn't bare that in the midst of everything else.

"I wish you'd tell me what I could do to make this better," he told her. Though Aria didn't look up, she could hear the sound of shoes against the floor, signaling that he was walking over towards her.

Aria shook her head, looking up as he reached where she was seated and sat down beside her. "You're not going to stop doing drugs-"

"Just to be clear, it's **one** drug," he explained softly.

"For now," Aria countered. "And how long until it doesn't do what you need it to anymore, Ezra, and you move onto something stronger? Or worse, you have an overdose? Your kidneys shut down? Liver? It makes you sick?"

"I know you understand basic psychology with addicts," Ezra replied to her.

Aria nodded as her chin trembled, threatening another wave of tears. "Yeah. The benefits outweigh the risks to you right now. And just the same, someone whose sober will only stay that way until something shifts the balance between the benefit of being sober and the fear of what being addicted can do to you."

"I **know** I'm an addict," he told her, though his voice was barely above a whisper. "I've done NA, I've seen a therapist, I've gone the whole nine yards. I'm not doing any of this blindly. But I also know what it's like when the only thing between a gun and the floor is your body, and a bullet goes through it. I need **you** to understand that sometimes I just need all that to **stop**."

Aria nodded again as she bit on the inside of her bottom lip. She reached up and wiped tears off her face, inhaling a deep breath. She looked back up at him. "The difference is, there was a time when I could do that for you. When did I stop being enough?"

"You **never **stopped being enough for me, Aria," he stated firmly. "Sometimes, only for a split second, I wish you understood this world just so it would make sense to you, because I don't feel like any amount of explanation is going to tell you what you need to hear. I'm not doing this **because **of you. All of it has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with things that I can't get out of my head. Things I can't get **off** of my body."

Aria looked up at him tentatively. "Like the scars."

Ezra nodded. "Like the scars. And like how Error: Reference source not foundno matter how hard I try, Error: Reference source not foundI'm never going to be able to completely hide the burns on my arm. People will see those, and to believe they won't ask questions is ignorant."

"That doesn't change the fact that having a drug problem is an issue for us," Aria replied. "It bothers me, and it only makes me more fearful that something else will happen to you. Doesn't it scare you at all?"

"Someone cuts off your air supply until you stop breathing and then makes you start breathing again just to torture you, it's hard to be afraid of much," he murmured honestly.

"But it scares **me**," Aria replied. "Does that mean anything to you at all?"

Ezra sighed, brushing a frustrated hand through his hair. "Look, I'm trying. But I can't do everything right at once right now. I can barely do one thing right at a time."

Aria wrapped her arms under her legs and rested her chin on her knee.

"Is this really all about me," Ezra asked. "Or is there something else that's bothering you? I know all the focus has been on me for a while…"

Aria shook her head, bringing a hand up and resting her elbow on her knee as she moved to rest her chin in her hand. "It doesn't really matter anyway, does it?"

Ezra raised his eyebrows. "How you feel doesn't matter? Really?"

"It doesn't feel that way," Aria told him. "No one ever asked how it felt when a psycho was stalking me and my friends for almost a year, or how I felt when I found out what had happened to you."

Ezra stared at her for several long moments. "Are you still having nightmares about A?"

Aria sighed and stared down at the floor. She was so used to the nightmares of Mona, and now the new A as well, trying to get at her that they didn't phase her like they used to. At least, that's what she liked to tell herself when she was questioned about it.

Ezra's brow furrowed at her lack of an answer. "Is something happening that I don't know about? Is- Has Mona done something? Or someone else?"

Aria bit on her bottom lip, too nervous to answer his question. She knew the price of anyone knowing about A was always high, and there was no way she could tell Ezra without endangering him once again.

"Aria…"

Aria looked up at him. "There's nothing going on."

Ezra shook his head at her. "You're lying. I know you are. Why wouldn't you tell me about this?"

Aria dropped her head back against the cupboard behind her. "I **can't **tell you, Ezra! I can't tell anyone! A always knows everything, and if A finds out that **you** know about them,…When you know about A, A finds a way to hurt you."

"What do you mean?" Ezra asked.

"I mean that every time we get close to finding out who A is or finding out something that could expose them, someone gets hurt. Hanna got hit by a car for thinking it was Noel and finding out about us. Emily was almost killed because she figured out Ian didn't kill himself. Spencer-"

"I get it," Ezra said solemnly.

"No, Ezra, you don't," she cried. "A tried to have Caleb arrested because he tried to help us, and Michael said that he was the reason you lost your job at Hollis. You don't think that the reason he was able to get so close to us without being in Rosewood could've had anything to do with A?"

Ezra considered the information for a few moments. He looked back up at her. "Even if it did, A's intention has always been to hurt you girls, not the people in your life. What could A do now that he or she hasn't already done?"

Aria glared at him. "Oh, I don't know, Ezra. Maybe tell the **cops** that you're addicted to **cocaine**. And as much as people might turn the other cheek to us now, I imagine if someone actually presented the cops with evidence of our relationship, they'd be inclined to do something about it."

Ezra shook his head at her. "It's not right, Aria. You shouldn't have to deal with that."

She laughed just once, shaking her head. "Neither should you. And yet here we are."

Ezra shook his head again, clearly not satisfied with her answer of complete dismissal to it all. He huffed, looking back up at her. "Well regardless of everything else, what I do know is what I **feel**. Screw anyone else who wants to get in between this. If A wants to hurt you because you told me about them, they'll have to _go_through **me**."

Aria looked up at him, ready to argue his point, but the look on her face told her it was moot. "Even if you put all that aside, there's no way things can go back to the way they were. You're my teacher again."

Ezra raised his eyebrows at her. "Seriously? That's your answer to why we can't be? What if I negate it?"

"You can't negate it," Aria disagreed. "You're the teach-"

Her words were cut off as Ezra pressed his lips against hers, cupping his hand against the back of her head. Though Aria was frozen for a few moments, she was too easily accepting of something she'd been cut off from for longer than she could recall. She sank against him, gripping the fabric of his shirt as her mouth opened, granting access to him.

_.,.  
Looking back again, tracing back the threads  
__Said it was mess, was it just in my head  
.,._

Spencer looked up from her homework at Hardy and watched him for a few brief moments. She had been on the receiving end of jokes from Aria for the past few weeks about their growing friendship, and the comments only served to make Spencer question whether Aria was right. She honestly didn't see what Aria saw between she and Hardy, other than friendship.

He looked up from the book he was currently immersed in and raised his eyebrows at her. "Something wrong?"

Spencer quickly shook her head, turning her attention back to her homework. "I was just thinking about the quantifications in the differential." She kept her head down for a few moments before she looked back up at him. "What are you reading?"

Hardy grinned. "The Hunger Games."

Spencer stared at him, utterly confused. "Seriously? That's what you're actually reading?"

Hardy nodded, looking back down at the page.

Spencer pushed up off from the ground and walked over to the chaise where he was stretched out. "You're not serious. You're not actually…" She snatched the book from his hands and began to read. "When I break into the clearing, she's on the ground- Oh my god. Why are you reading this?"

Hardy shrugged, taking back the book as Spencer all but tossed it back at him. He chuckled at her reaction. "Keepin' up with the kids. Teaching college students can be a rough world."

Spencer rolled her eyes again, walking back over to her place on the floor. She sank back down into the space and returned her attention to her homework. Her phone skittered on the table as it buzzed with a new message a few moments later. She reached up and grabbed it, tapping through the command features of her phone to see the message without bothering to look up until she'd gotten the screen up.

_**Anything important I need to know  
**__**for school tomorrow?  
**__**-Aria**_

Spencer dropped her pen into the center of her textbook to type back a quick message before settling her phone back on the table. She'd gotten a message earlier in the day from Aria telling her she'd gone home from school. She also knew that Ella had sent Ezra to talk to Aria about the current situation going on between them. She only hoped that whatever had driven Aria to run out of the classroom had been resolved.

About half an hour later, she was closing her textbook when Hardy peeked up from his book and looked over at her.

"Are you done yet?" He asked curiously. "I'm hungry. I could really go for some Chinese food."

Spencer chuckled. "You know that your survival isn't contingent on doing every single thing with me, right? I mean I **do** have a boyfriend."

"Yeah, I've noticed," he replied as he stood from where he was sitting. He walked over to the couch and sat down next to her. "I've also noticed his lack of attendance. I mean am I blind, or has he not been here at **all **in the month and a half that I've been in Rosewood?"

"He has a job in another town," Spencer replied as if it explained Toby's absence entirely. She stood up, only for Hardy to stand as well, putting them face-to-face.

"Does he even bother to call you?" Hardy countered. "I mean I know we haven't known each other that long, and far be it for me to point out the obvious, but in the past few weeks, I haven't heard you talk about him once."

Spencer's gaze dropped guiltily, but it didn't stop Hardy from continuing.

"And when I **have **seen you take a phone call or check your phone for messages, I'm pretty sure they haven't been from him. Am I right?" He questioned as he stood in front of her.

Spencer stared at the ground frustrated. She knew the facts that Hardy was presenting her with weren't unfair observations. She had tried well and hard to get in touch with Toby on multiple occasions since he'd taken a job outside of Rosewood. His lack of attendance or correspondence of any kind since he'd left Rosewood over two months ago had hurt for a while, but eventually she'd started locking her heart up like she usually did to protect herself from getting hurt.

"What does it matter if you are," Spencer said angrily as she looked back up at Hardy. "It's not as if it changes anything. Toby's still my boyfriend."

"Maybe so," Hardy replied as he took a step towards her. It was barely more than an inch, but the decrease of space between them made things feel a lot more heated for Spencer. She could easily feel his breath on her lips as he stared down at her. "But he's not here now, and he certainly doesn't seem to be making any effort to keep what he has here alive. Maybe I'm stupid, but I think you feel something too."

"I don't feel anything," Spencer replied with her eyes locked on the ground.

"I don't believe you," Hardy replied with just a hint of anger. That was all it took for Specer to tip her head up just a few inches into his line of sight. He gripped her sides and pulled her flush against him before kissing her roughly.

All of her logic told Spencer to fight him, to push him away and slap him for doing something so callous. But his lips were warm and inviting, and there was a fire between them that she hadn't quite ever felt or touched, for all the different guys she'd dated in the past few years. Somehow there was just something more tangible and real in this moment.

After a few seconds though, realization of what she was doing hit Spencer, and reluctantly ended their kiss. Dropping back to flat on her feet, there was just the slightest hint of disappointment between them.

"You can't tell me that you didn't feel that too," Hardy murmured softly.

Spencer looked up at him through her eyelashes. Her cheeks felt hot, and she was at a loss for words. Her brow furrowed a moment later though as she was sure she heard the sound of an engine outside.

Hardy opened his mouth to say something, only for Spencer to cover his mouth with her hand. She listened more intently, and a few seconds after, there was a clear sound of gravel crunching. Her eyes widened as she took several steps back from Hardy.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he gave her a strange look.

"You have to go," Spencer insisted as she began picking up his things and shoving them at him. "You can't be here."

"Why not?" He asked. "I've met your parents. I-"

"My parents are in Vermont for the week," she replied in a rushed manner. "And Melissa is out of town too. Which means the only person that could be is Toby-"

Before she could say anything else she heard the side door opening. She dropped Hardy's things and picked up the only thing she could think of to stall herself for a few moments Error: Reference source not found her bottle of water.

She pulled the cap off and took several sips as she heard her name. As Toby came around the corner, she feigned surprise and rushed over to him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. She kissed him with all the energy she could manage.

When they parted a moment later, Spencer watched as Toby's gaze shifted from her to Hardy.

"Who's he?"

Hardy grabbed his things and glided across the room as if he hadn't just been kissing Spencer a few seconds earlier. "I'm Hardy. A friend of Ezra Error: Reference source not found Aria's boyfriend. I needed to get away from the noise of those two for a bit, and Spencer let me do some work here."

"You two are friends?" Toby asked.

"We've gotten to know each other a bit since he came to town," Spencer said affirmatively. "But Hardy was just leaving."

"Are you sure?" Toby asked. "I don't want to put anyone out. I was just in town for the night and I wanted to see you."

Spencer nodded quickly, glancing over at Hardy nervously.

Hardy nodded as well a moment after her. "Yeah, I should really go." His phone buzzed a moment later. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, checking the screen. "And apparently now I need to. It was really nice meeting you."

"Sure," Toby replied, clearly still somewhat confused. Hardy left them standing alone in the room just a few moments later, and Spencer turned her attention back to Toby.

"Did you want to go get dinner or stay in?" She asked.

"I saw that new restaurant on McKinley opened," he replied. "Have you been there yet?"

Spencer shook her head. "We can go if you want. I just want to change out of these clothes really quick."

Toby nodded. He leaned in to kiss her, and Spencer turned her head, giving him her cheek instead. Before he could question her attitude though, she had taken off up the steps to her room.

Once inside the safety of her room, Spencer forced herself to calm down. She inhaled several deep breaths before finally going to her closet to find fresh clothes. She pulled out a button-down white shirt and a black skirt. She quickly changed out of her jeans and shirt before changing into the fresh clothes.

Once dressed, she exited the room and stepped into the bathroom. She wetted a wash cloth and wiped away the sweat that had formed on her face before washing her mouth out with Listerine. She inhaled a deep breath as she wiped her mouth off a few moments later, staring into the mirror. She sincerely hoped that Toby wouldn't figure out what had happened before he had walked in.

"Spencer?"

"I'm coming," she replied quickly, stepping out of the bathroom. She returned to her bedroom long enough to pull on a pair of black tights and a matching vest before grabbing a pair of boots from her closet. She made her way back down the steps and walked over to the couch. She sat down on the couch and called Toby's name as she slipped on her left boot.

"Be right out," he replied from the first floor bathroom.

Spencer pulled the zipper on her first boot and then pulled the second one on before zipping it as well. Just as she did, her phone buzzed on the table. She picked it up and brought up the message.

_**What is it with you and infidelity?  
**__**-A**_

Spencer gulped, but a moment later, her phone buzzed in her hand once again. She looked down at it her phone, sure that the message was probably from A as well. She tapped on the option to open the message.

_**Want Toby to stay in the dark?  
**__**Make sure these end up in the  
**__**principal's hands.  
**__**-A**_

Attached to the message was multiple photos of Aria and Ezra. From the clothes they were wearing and the easily visible sling holding Ezra's arm against his body, she knew that the pictures were from that day.

"Ready to go?"

Spencer's head quickly whipped up, and she forced a smile on her face as she exhaled a soft breath of relief that Toby was across the room. She nodded. "Yeah."


	13. These Are The Lies That Are Keeping Me

**A/N: **Note my dedication to the cab by naming the title of this chapter after a song that isn't even out yet...That said, this chapter is the newest one I've written, so you're officially caught up to what I've written! Do enjoy :)

_Chapter 13_

_These Are The Lies That Are Keeping Me Alive_

Aria stared at the message on Spencer's phone for what felt like an endless amount of time, struggling to find the right words to respond with. Somehow everything that came up in her mind didn't quite meet up with what she actually wanted to say.

"I don't know who could've done this," Spencer told her. Aria could hear the panic in her best friends' voice as she continued to stare at the photos on the screen. "I mean how could someone have even known about Hardy being at the house? He said Ezra was the only one who did, and Ezra with you."

Aria looked up at Spencer. "What exactly happened before you got these messages?"

Spencer shook her head, staring out her bedroom window out at the barn. "I was here with Hardy. He was arguing with me about how Toby hasn't been around, and I was telling him that Toby has just been busy. And then he kissed me."

Aria inhaled a deep breath, staring down at the photos. She had gathered that much information from the messages that Spencer had shown her. "And then what?"

"Then I heard someone outside, and realized Toby had shown up. Hardy and I separated, and I was trying to play it off like nothing had happened. The next thing I knew, I was getting those messages." She turned and looked over at Aria, leaning back against the window sill. "I don't know how A could have seen us without Toby seeing them, Aria. It doesn't seem possible."

Aria nodded slowly, still chewing on her bottom lip. She hadn't brought up the things Michael had said to her to Spencer yet, and a part of her wondered if she had been wrong for not doing that so far, considering the current situation now. "Well what are you going to do about Hardy?"

Spencer's brow furrowed at Aria's question. "Wh-what? That's what you're worried about? A is threatening to out you and Ezra, and you're worried about my love life?"

Aria shrugged. She was only trying to deflect from what she didn't want to have to tell Spencer. "Ezra and I have faced worse." And it wasn't a lie. Aria knew they'd been in worse predicaments in the past. A had threatened to out them so many times in the past that it almost felt normal these days, and she wouldn't be withered by the newest threat. If anything, she felt stronger since her conversation with Ezra – even if that conversation **had **only been a few hours ago.

Spencer shook her head, walking over to her bed and sinking down onto it. "It doesn't matter. Toby is back now, and besides, I've been told Hardy is a playboy."

Aria's brow furrowed. She could easily read between Spencer's lines, and knowing what she knew, she couldn't let her so easily dismiss something that could become very real. "Spence-"

"It doesn't matter, Aria. We need to worry about what you and Ezra are going to do," Spencer insisted.

Aria inhaled a deep breath, shaking her head. "No, we don't. Ezra and I will be fine."

Spencer gave her an expression that Aria could only assume was what Spencer would have looked at someone who she thought was nuts. "Ezra and you will **not **be fine, Aria! If I don't give those photos to the principal, Toby is going to end up finding out about Hardy and me!"

"What if he already knows?" Aria asked.

Spencer's confusion only seemed to worsen as she stared at Aria, and the expression wasn't one Aria was sure she'd ever seen on her friend's face. Spencer Hastings didn't do confused.

"What? What the hell are you talking about," Spencer questioned.

Aria inhaled a deep breath. "Think about it, Spence. Who else could've taken these pictures? And you said there's no way that Toby couldn't have **not **seen A watching you."

Spencer's expression suddenly shifted from one of confusion to one that Aria was pretty sure was distaste and disbelief. "You're insinuating that Toby is A."

"Spencer-" Aria reached out to grab her friend's hand, but Spencer pulled back just as quickly, as if her touch was fire. "Spence, Ezra's dad told me!"

Spencer glared at her. "And that holds water for you!? The psycho who tried to kill your boyfriend tells you that your best friend's boyfriend is your stalker, so he **must** be right!?"

"He might've been a psycho, but anything he told me wasn't a lie," Aria replied; her tone indiscernible from all of the emotions behind it. "Everything he told me was the truth. When he told me Ezra was on drugs. When he told me he hated Ezra-"

"So because he tells you Toby… What did he even say!?" Spencer growled.

"He intimated that I was the one who killed Alison, and we started to argue, and then he said that 'the police screwed up a simple blood test and let a psycho get away'," she explained as calmly as she could. "I tried to tell him Toby wasn't the one who killed Alison, and he said Toby isn't who we think he is."

"So he didn't even say Toby is A!" Spencer cried angrily. "This is **your **insinuation!"

"There was a time in the past when we thought Toby was A, incase you forgot," Aria reminded her. "And I know things have changed, but c'mon Spencer! He hasn't been here in months! He easily could've been the person doing all these things to us without any of us even thinking to suspect him, because we didn't think he was here."

"You're wrong," Spencer told her angrily. "And I want you out of my house."

.,.  
_Sometimes it's hard to just keep going  
__But faith is moving without knowing  
__.,._

Aria stared at her phone screen, hoping that Spencer would call her or text her. She knew that things would be explosive when she told the other girl about what had happened when she'd been in that hotel room with Michael, but she hadn't expected it to go this badly.

"Are you absolutely sure that it's Toby?"

Aria looked up at Ezra as he walked across the room with a tray. She had no clue how he had a firm grip on it, considering it had two full cups of coffee, creamer, and sugar on it, but he seemed to be fine carrying it. "I can't be absolutely positive, but it makes sense." She paused, shaking her head as she looked down at the floor. The carpeting in the new apartment was a far cry from the cramped little space he'd had across town in his studio apartment. _Oh the things that money could buy_. "I wish I'd had more proof. I don't think she's going to forgive me for this, and if I'm wrong…"

Ezra settled the tray on the coffee table and sat down next to her, handing her one of the cups of coffee. "You guys have been friends for years. You've suffered through the death of the person who you said brought you all together. If you can make it through that, I think you can make it through this."

Aria shook her head, stirring creamer and sugar into her drink. "I don't think so, Ezra. You didn't see her face when I told her that it could be Toby."

Ezra nodded. "I get it – she took a hit from you. But haven't you and your friends been through this before?"

Aria gulped. "Yeah, we thought Melissa was A last year, when it was Mona. I really hate that every time this comes back around, it's put on Spencer and her family."

Ezra took a sip of his coffee and then placed it back on the coffee table before moving his hand behind her, rubbing her back. "Look, babe, you can't take this all on yourself. Shit happens and sometimes you've got to swallow the bitter pill."

Aria looked over at him, eyebrows raised. "Seriously? This is coming from you?"

Ezra chuckled. "I hear what you're saying. But I also know that I teach at a high school, and today I watched three girls scream at each other over a boy at 9 AM and by 2 PM they were laughing **at **him."

Aria exhaled a deep breath, shaking her head again. "I just don't think it's that simple."

"That's because it's not going to be."

Aria and Ezra looked up as the door opened. Hardy stepped through and dropped his bag beside it.

"What do you know?" Aria asked.

"I know that after you left her house, she called me screaming," Hardy replied as he crossed the room. "It took me more time than the actual conversation did to figure out what she'd said, but I think I got the gist of it. To be clear, the call lasted seventy seconds." Hardy said. "Did you ever think there would be an appropriate time to share the news of a stalker with the class?"

Aria sighed heavily, brushing a frustrated hand through her hair. "People knowing about that usually end up hurt. Please don't make me rehash **how**."

Hardy shook his head, walking over to the couch. He leaned against the back of it, looking down at her. "Either way. Let that little bastard come after me. Keep in mind the fact that when you accused him of being your stalker, she called **me**, not him."

Aria shook her head at him. "That doesn't solve anything, Hardy. And it doesn't mean anything. If I'm wrong, she's gonna hate me. And if I'm right, we just put her in the hot seat and she's about to get railroaded. Toby could kill her. Mona certainly tried."

"Then put her in a position she can't get out of," Hardy told her. "Get your friends all into one place and intervene. I'm sure the minute she knows that you're trying to, she'll call him up and he'll either fight his way out and prove his innocence, or he'll center himself in the perfect position to be railroaded into the truth."

"How in the world am I supposed to do that?" Aria asked.

Hardy's hands flew up. "I don't know, Aria. That's on you. But last I checked you have two other close friends who would probably help you to prove the truth against him. I don't trust him as far as I can throw him, which is saying a lot considering I've spent about ninety seconds in the same room as him."

"You really think five people going against two in one room is going to get him to spill his guts?" Aria questioned.

"I'm telling you he's foaming at the mouth to tell you what he's been up to. I took criminology in college, and I know well enough to know that he's aching to share this secret. You just need to give him the stage to do it."

_.,.  
__I can't shake you off of me and I can't be here  
__And help but think that you should be next to me  
__.,._

"You're crazy." Emily said haughtily. "Seriously."

"How is she crazy?" Hanna countered. "She could be right. And if she is-"

"She's not!" Emily cried.

"**Ladies**!" Ezra interjected.

Aria exhaled a heavy sigh, shaking her head. If not getting any sleep the night before and a raging headache hadn't been bad enough, listening to Hanna and Emily argue for the past ten minutes was booting her headache into a full-force migraine.

"Can I talk for five seconds?" Aria asked, rubbing her temples. "I mean I **was **the person in that room when that asshole decided to start throwing accusations around."

Emily turned towards her. "Aria, I'm telling you that's not who Toby is."

Ezra leaned back against his desk, gripping the edge of it with his good hand. "And I'm telling you that if there's one thing my father never did was lie when he was being sinister. He had nothing to gain by telling Aria what he did."

"Except to get all of us to turn against each other," Emily replied. "C'mon, you guys. You can't honestly believe that he wanted to do anything else."

"Why would he want to turn us against you or Spencer or Toby when he was planning on killing Ezra and I?" Aria asked. "Michael had no intention of letting us out of that hotel room that night. There was no use to him filling my head with lies if he was going to kill me."

Emily stared at her for a long moment, obviously not sure that she actually believed what Aria was telling her.

Hanna sighed, walking over to Aria. "I believed you the day you told me, and I still believe you. If this is what's best to putting the truth out there, then let's do it. Fuck A. I'm sick of living under a microscope with every move I make."

"What were you guys planning to do anyway?" Emily asked. The look on her face made it clear that she still wasn't sold on the theory, but Aria was sure that she was still thinking it over.

"We want you to ask Spencer to meet at her house with Toby," Ezra replied. "Tell her that Aria told you about her theory and you think she's nuts. We'll come with you. Five people are more likely to get through to her than just two."

"You realize how foolish that sounds, right?" Emily asked. "She'll never believe you guys. Not with solid proof."

"Then I'll find some," Aria replied. "Just get Spencer to agree to it. Please."

Emily stared at her for more than two minutes, completely silent as they stood there. Finally, she nodded.

The rest of the school day passed without Aria and Ezra in the building. She went home with the excuse that she had a migraine – which wasn't a total lie. He had finished his classes for the day, granting him the ability to leave without excuse.

They went to his apartment, where Hardy was already searching through the various boxes that had been coming in from New York in the past few days. Ezra didn't quite understand the logic of how he ended up with all of Michael's possessions after his death, but at the moment, he wasn't complaining.

Aria gulped down a large swallow of heavily caffeinated coffee as she flipped through the fifth folder she'd been through so far, thoroughly exhausted. She really wanted to sleep, but she knew there was no time to do it. She hadn't found anything that could help their case yet, and if Emily was right about anything, it was the fact that she couldn't go into that conversation without any proof. Spencer would only scream her out of the room again.

"What exactly quantifies as proof?" Hardy asked as he shoved another file out of his way and reached for another.

Aria shrugged, looking up at him. "Pictures, something in writing…Video, if it exists."

"And what if it doesn't?" He countered.

"Then going into that argument will be useless because Spencer will never speak to any of us again." Aria replied.

Hardy nodded, looking back down at the papers in front of him. He stared at them for a few moments and then shoved them aside, causing them to scatter across the counter and onto the floor. He stood up and grabbed one of the boxes, beginning to empty it out messily.

"What're you doing?" Aria growled. "You're making a mess."

"Videos mean a hard drive or jump drive. This is a guy who was meticulous about every detail of things. You can't tell me that he doesn't have pictures of videos of trophies. And if he has those, he probably has pictures of whatever communication between this kid and himself." Hardy explained.

Aria watched him for a few moments, distracted by her weariness that was causing her frustration to figure out whether he was stupid or a genius. Before she could though, Ezra held up a sheet of paper.

"I found an e-mail. There aren't any others, but it looks like the first establishment of communication," he said.

Aria looked up at him and then took the sheet from his hands. She looked it over for a few moments before nodding. "This is good."

Hardy emptied three boxes before he finally found what he was looking for – three external hard drives. The first two contained videos and photos, some of which Ezra was sickened to find were of him since he'd moved to Rosewood. Others were files that were obviously a track record of his communication with people who were just as screwed up as he was.

It was on the last one that they found what they needed. Among a myriad of photos were also documents about money that had obviously exchanged hands for Toby to share information with Michael.

"That son of a bitch," Ezra muttered under his breath as he stared at the spreadsheets.

Aria shook her head, plugging her tablet into the laptop. She knew that Ezra was pissed, and any other time she would be putting all her issues aside to deal with the problem at hand, but she was more focused on showing Spencer the proof that they'd found.

As the files began copying onto the hard drive, Aria became dizzy, clinging to the counter to hold herself upright. The last thing she wanted to do was fall over in three inch heels.

"Are you okay?" Ezra asked, looking over at her.

She nodded, trying to maintain her balance. "Just exhausted."

"Go take a nap," he told her insistently. "This is going to take a while anyway."

"We should go right after school is over," Aria countered. "Spencer didn't take those photos to the principal today, so Toby is going to be pissed."

"Don't worry about that right now," Hardy interjected. "You won't be of any use to her if you can't stand up straight when you're trying to show her proof."

Aria sighed, looking up at the clock. School wouldn't be out for more than two hours. She bit her lip contemplatively for a few moments, but another wave of dizziness threatened to knock her off her feet, and the offer stopped being an option as Ezra all but ordered her to go lie down.

Two hours passed faster than she expected – mostly because she fell asleep before her head hit the pillow, and the next thing she knew, she was being woken by Ezra and Hardy to tell her that Hanna and Emily were there.

She freshened up and attempted to wake up a bit more while Ezra and Hardy gave Hanna and Emily a quick rundown of what they'd found. She was also grateful to find that while she'd been asleep, someone had thought to get her more coffee, which helped her wake up a bit more as well.

Less than twenty minutes after she had left Ezra's bed, they were all packed into Hardy's jeep and headed over to Spencer's house. Emily made a confirmation call to Spencer, playing into the conversation as she talked to her.

They arrived at the Hastings residence not long after that, and before Aria knew it, they were heading into the house. She, Ezra, and Hardy had opted to stay outside for a few moments so that Spencer wasn't suspicious. They stood just outside the door, which had been left just slightly ajar so that Aria could hear.

"Where's Toby?" Emily asked.

"He's on his way over," Spencer replied in a disdainful tone.

"Does he know why he's coming to meet us?" Hanna asked.

"No, I didn't think I should ruin his day by telling him one of my friends thinks he's A," Spencer replied.

Aria inhaled a deep breath from where she stood outside the door, and then opened it wider and stepped across the threshold. She was quickly flanked by the two boys. She had a whole speech figured out in her head to attempt to talk Spencer down before she ripped her head off, but before she could say a single word, Hardy was speaking.

"I know that you think that Aria is making this up, but you need to hear your friends out," he told her.

"You believe this crap too?" Spencer said incredulously. "She's nuts! She's spent too much time with her drug-addicted boyfriend and his psycho father!"

"Hey!" Hardy yelled back in the same tone Spencer had. She cowered slightly at it, obviously feeling at least a little bad by what she'd said, even if she didn't say it.

"We've got proof," Aria said as she stepped past Hardy, pulling her tablet out of her bag. She walked over to Spencer and held it out towards her. "Look for yourself."

Spencer stared at her with an expression that was somewhere between pissed and terrified. She looked down at the tablet for a few moments, and then back up at Aria. "I don't need to, because I'm sure whatever's on there isn't real. Pictures can be photoshopped."

"There's video too," Aria replied, turning her tablet around to turn it on by herself. She tapped through several options and then opened one of the videos. It was of Toby and Michael talking in the park, having a rather heated conversation. Aria turned it around and shoved it at Spencer. She watched her friend's expression as she watched the video play out, seeing the various emotions that seemed to go through her.

"This can't be real," Spencer said, even as her hands tentatively gripped the edges of the tablet. She looked up at Aria, staring into her hazel orbs. "He can't have done this…"

"He did, Spence," Aria murmured softly. "And we need to confront him and make this end now. We've got proof to take to the police and-"

"You have to let me try talking to him first," Spencer replied. "He can't have been involved in the things that happened to Ezra. I'll get to the bottom of it all."

"You're crazy to believe you can possibly do that," Hanna said as she walked over to them. "I was crazy to think that I could get Mona to tell the truth. We can't fix this, Spencer."

"Can't fix what?"

The three girls looked up in time to see Toby entering the house. His brow furrowed slightly as he stared at the three of them, and then at Ezra, Emily, and Hardy.

"What's going on here?" He asked. "I thought you were fighting with Aria."

"She was," Aria replied, pulling the cover down over her tablet. She returned it to her bag hanging over her shoulder. "She realized I was right, though."

"About what," Toby asked cautiously.

"About you being their stalker," Hardy said. The statement was so simple, but somehow littered with a wild mix of emotions.

"What?" Toby asked, taking on an expression of confusion.

"Don't play dumb, Toby," Emily said in a hurtful tone. "We've seen the pictures and the videos."

He stared at all of them for several moments longer before his expression shifted to one of anger. He pulled the door shut behind him so roughly that the glass rattled, and stepped further into the sitting room. "So what if I am?"

"Are you serious!?" Aria cried. "Your Spencer's boyfriend! What happened to being in love with her?!"

"What happened to being faithful?" Toby countered.

"Don't even go there," Hardy said, stepping forward so that he was in front of the girls. "I wasn't here when this started."

"No, but the girl has never been able to keep a relationship straight for as long as I've known her," Toby countered. "She's kissed two of her sister's exes, while her sister was with them. And now she's getting hot and heavy with you while I'm out of town."

"Except you were never out of town," Aria disagreed. "We know you were here, Toby. We have proof. And we're going to the cops."

"I've evaded the cops before," he reminded her.

"And you've been caught before," Hanna countered.

Toby raised his eyebrows at her. "You don't think that wasn't by design? Because it was. How best to railroad a case than from the inside?"

"You-"

"No," Toby growled. "I didn't kill Alison. But I sure as hell wasn't going to let them try me for her murder, either."

"Wasn't what these girls went through last year enough?" Hardy asked. "Wasn't it good enough to just let things lie?"

Toby shrugged. "The cop offered me a hundred thousand dollars to make the girls think they were being stalked again so that he was exposed," Toby explained, pointing to Ezra. "I was going to stop when he was killed. But then you started hooking up with my girlfriend."

"We kissed **one **time!" Spencer cried. "You nearly got Aria and Ezra killed! How does that make all that you did okay?!"

Hardy moved his arm around the front of Spencer, pushing her back behind him while his other hand gestured behind his body for someone else to call the cops.

"I guess it doesn't," Toby replied. "But it's not as if you'd care any other way."

Spencer stepped past Hardy at the same moment he stumbled backwards, shouting "how could you say that!?" Her head quickly whipped around though as she turned back to look at Hardy. His jaw was slack as he stared down at his hand coming away from his shoulder. Bright crimson blood coated his fingers, pouring from a wound surrounding the handle of a fully-embedded knife. The movement had been so quick and nimble that she hadn't even seen it be thrown.

"Oh my god, Hardy," she said as her hands came up to press against the exposed edges of the wound.

"That's how I know," Toby told her angrily. "You're at **his **side. Not mine."

"You could've killed him!" Spencer yelled as she glared back at him while she and Aria helped Hardy back to the couch.

"If I wanted to kill him, he'd already be dead," Toby replied.

"You're a sick individual," Ezra said, making his presence known for the first time.

"It doesn't matter," Emily said. "Whatever you've done, you're screwed anyway." She paused for a moment, and there was a distant – but clear – sound of sirens. "The cops are already on their way."

"And I won't be here when they arrive," Toby replied, taking the few steps back to the door behind him and exiting the house. If any of them thought to run after him, they thought better of it, knowing better than to try and go one-on-one with 'A'.

"Can't you just pull it out," Hardy asked shakily as he looked up at Spencer. Her hand was still pressed firmly around the knife, trying to stem the blood flow.

"No way," Spencer replied, staring down into his blue eyes. "What if it knicked your jugular? One wrong move and you're dead."

"What's wrong with you," Ezra commented in a worried tone, though it was clear he was trying to lighten the mood. "People can beat the hell out of you, threaten to assault you or worse, but someone throws a knife at you, and you're fetal?"

"There's three inches of metal in my shoulder," Hardy countered, staring up at his friend.

Ezra shrugged. "I've had worse."

A light chuckle filled the room, but Hardy quickly winced and stopped. It was no more than a millimeter, but the slightest shift sent a wave of pain shooting through him.

Police officers stormed into the house a few moments later, and Aria, Hanna, Ezra, and Emily were sequestered from Spencer and Hardy as they were all questioned about what had happened. At the same time, EMTs were working to move Hardy out of the Hastings house and to an ambulance. One of the EMTs took over for Spencer, and she was pulled aside for questioning as well.

_.,.  
__The life is fading from me as you watch my heart bleed  
__Young love murdered __–__ that is what this must be  
__.,._

Aria yawned as she looked up at Ezra, trying desperately to keep her eyes open.

"I thought we weren't being domestic anymore," he said softly, even as his hand moved up and down in gentle movements against her bicep.

"Too tired to move," Aria replied softly. "Besides, after today, I don't want to be away from you."

They were curled up on the couch in her living room, having just gotten back from the hospital with Hardy. There had been some bickering between him and some of the doctors because they had wanted him to stay over night, but after confirming that the injury hadn't done any serious damage and that he would be fine with stitches and few days rest, he had insisted they release him. The attending on call hadn't been excited at the prospect of it, but had signed the papers anyway.

"You realize how dangerous everything was that we did tonight, right?" Ezra asked, brushing his lips against her forehead.

Aria nodded, inhaling and exhaling in deep breaths in an attempt to stay conscious and remember what they were talking about. "Doesn't solve any of our problems, either."

"One day at a time," Ezra whispered against her forehead. She likely had no idea that when they'd arrived at the house half an hour earlier and he'd excused himself to the bathroom, he'd really been getting high, and even with their current disagreement about it, in the current moment it didn't really feel like it mattered. They had figured out who A was and had proved it, and one of their close friends had managed to skate by what could've been a serious injury with nothing more than stitches.

Aria opened her eyes and turned over to look at Spencer where she was laying on the floor next to Hardy. There was more than a foot of space between them, but she was wide awake while he was fast asleep from the drugs they'd given him at the hospital. She reached a hand out to her, and Spencer looked up at her for a moment before reaching up and squeezing her hand lightly.

"Thanks for not making me go home alone." She said softly.

"You're welcome here as long as you want," Aria replied. "There's no way my mom would've let you go home with Toby out there anyway."

Spencer nodded, looking back over at Hardy. Aria took the same moment to look back at Ezra, who had fallen asleep in the mere two minutes that had passed. She looked back at Spencer and squeezed her hand once more.

"It's okay to want something else, Spence. Even if he wasn't A…he wasn't here." Aria whispered. "Hardy was."

"Hardy also read The Hunger Games," Spencer countered softly.

Aria giggled quietly, pressing her face into her pillow so she didn't make any sound. "I've seen Twilight in Ezra's movie collection. Don't feel bad."

The girls shared a grin that was clearly their own attempt to keep from laughing and waking the boys. Aria took several deep breaths to quell the urge to giggle, and her exhaustion quickly returned, causing her eyes to droop shut. Her final thought before she fell asleep was a weary hope that maybe her friends and family could finally be safe again.


	14. Coming Up For Air

**A/N:** Umm…borrowing bits of information from Say about Hardy's family. That is all.

_Chapter 14_

_Coming Up For Air_

Aria giggled as she watched the snow flutter to the ground. For the first time in weeks, she didn't feel like she had to be in full-on panic mode. The snowfall had definitely helped to lift her mood, and with every neighborhood coated in Christmas decorations, she felt like she'd been given an extra-strength dose of holiday cheer.

Heavy drifts blew across the yard blinding her vision for a moment as she cupped a snowball in her hand. She stepped up behind Spencer, staring around her arm for a moment. Aria's brow furrowed.

"Why are you texting Hardy? He's four feet away."

Spencer peered over her shoulder and then lifted her phone to her chest, hiding the text message. "Its personal. What are you doing anyway?"

Aria looked up at the boys, watching them for a few moments. "Just waiting for an opportune moment."

Spencer turned, looking down long enough to finish typing her text before she looked back up at Aria. "For what?"

Aria watched the boys for a few more moments and then watched Hardy turn his back and turn his attention to his phone. She brought her hand out from behind her back and then tossed it across the yard, hitting him squarely between his shoulders. Before he turned around, she turned around, easily hidden under Spencer's height.

"Really?" Hardy commented. Aria stifled her giggles with a hand to her mouth as she stood behind Spencer, just barely able to see Hardy.

"If you're gonna throw a snowball, you could at least do it to my face," he said.

"I didn't do it!" Spencer insisted, but Aria pulled her phone from her pocket and quickly opened her neglected messages, appearing innocent as she became viewable to Hardy. She could hear Ezra laughing from where he stood.

She looked up from her phone with a straight face, feigning confusion. "I didn't do anything."

Hardy stared at her for a long moment before lifting the hand holding the snowball and hurling it across the yard. Aria ducked for measure, but the snowball hit Spencer squarely in the abdomen anyway. It would've rendered her need to drop down moot, except she dropped her phone into her pocket and scooped up another handful of snow before moving several steps away from Spencer. When the taller girl tossed a snowball in Aria's direction, she quickly ducked out of the way and giggled. She exchanged a look with Spencer, and then with Hardy, watching the other two as they each grabbed snowballs and, like an evil trio, seemed to turn their sights on Ezra.

He looked up from his own phone, looking from Aria, to Hardy, and then Spencer before his expression dropped. "You guys, don't-"

Before he could say another word, the front of his coat was slammed with three thick snowballs, each sloughing slowly off as the packed snow slowly loosened.

After that, all hell broke loose. It was all Aria could do to keep from getting hit, and even one-handed, Ezra managed to put on a good offense. She quickly found though, that her biggest competition was Hardy as he threw snowball after snowball at her.

By the time the sun began to set, she was shivering, stomping her way into her house in an attempt to get the snow off of her boots. The other three followed slowly behind her, walking with the same heavy movements as they tried to shake the snow off of their bodies. As Aria peeled her layers off, she could see that Hardy was almost completely soaked through in his clothes, including his jeans. Ezra had fared better, although she saw various wet spots on his calves as well.

"I take it you had fun," Ella commented as they walked into the kitchen. "I could hear the laughing all the way in here."

Aria shrugged, looking out the patio doors into the falling sheets of white. "It's a messy wonderland."

"Yeah, when you're not lying about who threw what snowball," Spencer said, bumping her shoulder against Aria's. Aria giggled, shaking her head as she sunk down into one of the chairs at the table. Ella had been cooking while they were outside, and the wafting scent of grilled chicken and potatoes was strong as they surrounded the table.

"Spencer are your parents going to be back for the holiday?" Ella asked as she carried a pitcher of water over from the fridge.

Spencer shook her head, pulling out a chair next to Aria. "They're in Spain until after the New Year. The weather is really bad, and they're not allowing flights out until it lets up."

"Well you're welcome to spend them with us," Ella said as she pulled out a chair and sat down. "What about you boys?"

Ezra shook his head, frustrated with himself as he struggled to spoon out food onto his own plate. "My mom and brother are back in New York. She's desperate to get me back there, but it's not going to happen."

Ella nodded. She had been well aware of Ezra's lack of holiday plans when Dianne had left several days earlier, and had told Aria she was more than welcome to have him join them. She looked over at Hardy. Several moments passed before he seemed to realize she was waiting for an answer.

"Oh me?" He said, slightly surprised. He shrugged. "Wherever the wind blows me. My family doesn't really… They're not around."

Ella nodded once more, understanding that whatever it was, he apparently wasn't feeling up to sharing the information.

They continued to eat with polite conversation moving about the table, though Ella left the conversing up to the two couples. It seemed for the first time in weeks that Aria and Ezra were both happy, which brought a comforting feeling.

After they had all finished eating, they each helped to clean up before heading out. Aria and Ezra headed to his apartment while Spencer and Hardy went to her place. Driving through the snow storm wasn't the worst any of them had ever driven through, but it wasn't easy either as the white flakes flew at their windshields.

Upon arriving back at the Hastings home, Spencer kicked her boots off in the mud room before unsheathing her jacket and hanging it up. Hardy stepped in the room behind her, removing his own coat. He winced as his coat slipped off his shoulder, passing it over to Spencer.

"Is your shoulder still sore?" Spencer asked curiously.

Hardy nodded. "Doctor said the muscles could take months to fully heal."

Spencer shook her head disgustedly, hanging his coat up next to hers on an open rack so that they could dry off. "That's so shitty. I'm sorry."

Hardy shook his head, walking back out into the kitchen with Spencer following on his heel. She walked over to the fridge and opened it, pulling out a pastry box.

"Brownie?" She offered.

"Sure," Hardy murmured. He leaned against the island as Spencer grabbed two plates out of a cupboard and then two forks before placing them on the countertop. She handed one of each to Hardy and then opened the pink pastry box and lifted out brownies with her fork. She placed on on his plate and then grabbed one for herself before closing the box. She cut off a piece of brownie for herself and ate it before speaking again.

"Can I ask you something?"

Hardy looked up at her curiously, swallowing before he answered her. "Sure."

Spencer cut off another piece of her brownie, staring down at it nervously. "What's the issue with your parents?"

Hardy sighed, stabbing his fork into the center of his brownie. "Do you remember when you said being friends with Ezra was hard work?"

Spencer nodded. "What about it?"

Hardy settled his fork on his plate, reaching up to his shoulder and massaging his fingers against the sore muscles. He winced slightly at the pressure, but it helped more than it hurt. "I didn't completely- well, no." He inhaled a deep breath. "Ezra and I went to the same high school. I didn't really know him as much as I knew _of_ him. I'd heard stories about him, and when I got to Hollis, I didn't really know how to take him, for a number of reasons. But mostly because my dad beat on me growing up."

Spencer's expression quickly shifted, but Hardy shook his head.

"It wasn't like what he went through, but I had a lot of suspicious injuries well into my teens. I guess I could've gotten out at some point by telling a teacher or something, but I stayed because I didn't really feel like I had anywhere to go, and I'd heard foster care horror stories. Anyway, when I turned eighteen, I got a giant trust fund, so I took it and cut off my ties with my parents. I moved here and went to Hollis and found out Ezra wasn't exactly the person people thought he was in New York, and we became friends." He explained.

Spencer shook her head at him. "I don't understand how parents can be so fucking ungrateful."

Hardy chuckled softly, nodding. "It makes me wary to have kids until I'm sure I'm absolutely ready. I think my parents regretted getting pregnant all three times."

Spencer raised her eyebrows. "You have _siblings_? Where the hell were they?"

Hardy nodded, laughing. "They're ten and fourteen years older than me. The oldest, Brent, hates my parents so much that he moved to London and became a dot com millionaire. I don't hear from him much, but I get the occasional card in the mail, and I get free computer software. Dixon is two years younger than him, and he's a career Marine. He met his wife in the military and everything. I've never met him."

"Well take it from me, sometimes not knowing who your siblings are is for the better." Spencer replied.

Hardy's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Spencer shook her head. "There was a period of time last year when my sister was married to a psycho. They were in Rosewood the entire four months of their disastrous marriage."

Hardy nodded. "Wait, was he the one who tried to…" His voice trialed off as he ran his finger across his throat.

"Fell in the bell tower?" Spencer finished for him. "Yeah. After trying to kill me."

Hardy shook his head. "Family is psychotic sometimes. Makes me glad I found a new one."

Spencer laughed quietly, staring at him. After a long minute, when the laughter had faded, the tension between them returned. It was the same tension that had been there in the few weeks since they'd found out Toby was A. And while one part of Spencer wanted to dive head-first into whatever it was between herself and Hardy, she remembered the stories Aria had retold her, that she'd heard from Hardy.

"Okay, what's going on here?" Hardy asked.

Spencer picked up the last of her brownie and popped it into her mouth before walking over to the sink and placing her plate and fork inside. "What do you mean?" She asked when she had swallowed her bite of food.

Hardy finished off his own brownie and then walked over to the sink, placing the dishes inside the sink. From where Spencer stood, she was pinned against the counter with Hardy standing in front of her. He placed his hands against the counter on either side of her, boxing her in.

"I mean that every time anything starts to move forward here, you shut down faster than any computer known to man." He replied. "I know you feel what I feel, and yet you won't let me past…this."

Spencer shook her head, looking down at the floor. "I just broke up with Toby-"

"You and I both know that's not why you're freezing me out," he argued.

Spencer looked back up at him. "No, you're right. That's not why. But what **is** an issue, is all that I know about you."

Hardy's brow furrowed once more. "What?"

"I know about how you are with girls. It's all about the chase for you. You think I don't know that the minute you get what you want from me, you won't suddenly get bored?" Spencer told him. "That's exactly the person you are!"

"That's who I **was**," he argued. He inhaled and then exhaled a heavy breath, shaking his head at himself. "Yeah, I was the guy who slept with any girl he could get with, and I'm sure a therapist would say it was me looking for the love I didn't get at home, but honestly I was just a dick who wasn't satisfied. So yeah, I slept with any girl who looked my way, and I didn't feel bad about it in the morning when I didn't feel anything about it all."

"And I'm just supposed to believe that suddenly changed in the last two years?" Spencer asked.

Hardy huffed clenching his jaw for a moment. "Look, it took me a long time to grow up. There was a bank hold-up eight months ago in New York-"

"Yeah, I know," Spencer said. "Three people died."

Hardy nodded. "And six people were shot, and two stabbed."

Spencer's brow furrowed in confusion. "There was never anything said about-"

"People being stabbed?" He proffered. "I know, because I was there."

Spencer stared at him like he had three eyes. "Yeah right."

Hardy pulled left arm back and began unbuttoning his dress shirt. Spencer rolled her eyes.

"Seriously-"

"**Look**," he told her. When she didn't, he reached down and grabbed her hand, placing it in the center of his ribcage over a five inch scar. Spencer's brow furrowed, and she turned back to look at what she was touching. True to his word, there was a scar under her fingers.

"You-"

"I was fine, other than a few stitches," he told her, exhaling a soft breath. "But I never forgot the fact that a married couple died that day. All that woman talked about was getting home to their kids. And given the chance, those guys probably would've killed us all. After that day though, I realized that I didn't want to die being known as the guy who could get any girl into bed. I want what my friends have. Love, marriage, kids…All of it."

Spencer stared at him for well over a minute in silence. Then, she spoke softly, "how do I know that this is real? That you won't turn around and change your mind as soon as I start to let you in."

Hardy narrowed his eyes slightly at her. "Change my mind about wanting all the good things in life? Not likely."

Spencer glared at him. Hardy sighed. He removed her hand from his chest and reached forward, pulling her into him, kissing her. The electricity between them was just as strong as ever, keeping them tight against one another as his tongue roamed her mouth. Only when they were both gasping for air, did they part.

"I promise, to not try, and sleep with you," he stammered breathlessly. "Until or unless you should decide you want to."

Spencer raised an eyebrow at him, smirking slightly. "Even if I say no 99 percent of the way there?"

Hardy smiled, laughing at her challenge. "Even then."

Spencer smiled back at him, fisting the lapels of his shirt and pulling him back into her. She welcomed his tongue into her mouth, releasing his shirt only to wrap her arms around his neck. Hardy's arms looped around her waist, holding her tightly against him. He pulled her hair off her neck as his lips moved away from hers, traveling down her neck to her collarbone.

Spencer groaned softly as she stared up at the ceiling. A thought occurred to her a moment later, and she pressed her hands against his chest, pushing him back slightly. "Wait."

Hardy lifted his head, looking at her with a confused expression. "What?"

"Please tell me that among the girls you've been with, Melissa Hastings isn't one of them?" Spencer inquired.

Hardy considered it for a moment. "Doesn't sound familiar."

Spencer chewed her lip for a moment before reaching down into her pocket and pulling her phone out.

"What're you doing?" He asked.

"Finding a picture just to be absolutely sure," she replied. She tapped through her gallery until she found a picture and then turned her phone around. Hardy stared at it for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Never seen 'er before. Why?"

Spencer shook her head, pushing the button the top of her phone to lock it. She didn't need to tell Hardy about Wren or Ian. At least not just yet.

She tucked her phone back into her pocket and then stepped away from him before heading towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"My bedroom," Spencer said, as if it was the most innocent statement in the world. "I'm not coming back down."

"Aren't you worried about getting caught?" He asked.

Spencer chuckled, staring at him with an amused expression. "By who? My parents? They're out of the country. And my sister is almost never around. Ever since she started seeing this new guy, she's never around."

With that, she turned and walked up the steps, leaving him standing there. Hardy exhaled a heavy breath, shaking his head at the situation.

"You're gonna screw yourself into a corner, Hardy," he muttered to himself before heading across the room to the stairs.

_.,.  
__Being yourself is the only way to act now  
__.,._

"Are you sure you want to spend the holidays on your own?" Aria asked as she watched Ezra try to stir sugar into his coffee without getting it everywhere.

"I won't be alone," he told her. "My mom and Wes are going to come back in the afternoon. Honestly, Hardy and I will probably just play video games until they get here."

Aria chuckled. Sometimes she forgot that underneath all the brilliance and nerdiness was a guy who just wanted to lay on the couch and play his XBox.

"Black Ops or Modern Warfare?" Aria teased as she shook out a blanket over herself.

Ezra shook his head at her. "Halo." He walked back over to her and settled a tray on the table before handing Aria a cup of coffee. He picked up another one for himself and sank down onto the couch next to her.

"So, on the subject of Christmas," Aria said softly. "When did you want to…?"

"What's your family doing for Christmas?" Ezra asked.

"Usually we'd go to Vermont to see my dad's family, but with the divorce, my grandparents are flying in from Maine, and the rest of the family's coming too. I swear, they're so excited my parents are divorced," she giggled. She chewed her lip for a moment. "You know we wanted to invite you guys…we just don't want it to be awkward."

Ezra nodded. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Why don't we just wait and see how things go on the day?"

Aria sighed, but nodded anyway.

Ezra returned his coffee cup to the table and picked up the TV remote. He turned it on and opened the DVR. He raised an eyebrow at the options. "Okay, my mom clearly needs to spend more time at home."

Aria giggled. Among a variety of westerns and old movies were typical chick flicks. "Maybe you should just dive headfirst and watch The Notebook already."

Ezra shook his head. "Not now, not ever. On the other hand, Casablanca is on here."

Aria stared at the time on the DVR for a moment. "I can't stay for the whole thing. I have to be home before midnight."

"Alright, so we start it now and finish when we have time." Ezra replied. "Sound good?"

Aria stared at the clock for a few moments longer. There were a lot of competing thoughts still in her mind over the problems they were having. Even with 'A' out of the way, they still had a number of issues to face, and it wouldn't be perfect again over night. But Aria couldn't help wondering if they could ever be good, as long as Ezra was still doing drugs.

_.,.  
__How'm I, how'm I supposed to light up, how'm I supposed to light up  
__.,._

Aria removed the towel wrapped around her wet hair and tossed it onto the hamper in her bedroom before walking over to her bed. She picked up a fresh pair of socks and pulled them apart before lifting her right foot to the edge of the bed so she could pull it on.

"What're you reading?" She asked as she looked up at Spencer, who was currently sitting at her desk.

"This poem you wrote." Spencer turned in the chair to face Aria. "When is this from?"

Aria sighed as she dropped her foot to the floor, lifting the other to pull on her second sock. "A few weeks ago. I've been sitting on it, trying to decide whether I should give it to Ezra or not."

"Is he coming today?" Spencer asked.

Aria shrugged. "He's invited, along with the rest of his family and Hardy. Whether he shows up or not is up to him."

"Do you want him to?" Spencer asked.

Aria chewed her bottom lip for a moment as she let her foot fall back to the floor. "Honestly, every time I see him lately, I can tell he's high, and it kills me."

Spencer stared at her for sixty long seconds in silence before simply asking, "why?"

Aria raised an eyebrow at her best friend. "Seriously? Why?"

Spencer nodded. "Yes. Why? I mean I can understand the logical sense that you think that if he's high when he's with you, it must be because he doesn't want to focus when you're together, but something tells me that's just _not_ it."

"I **don't** think it's all about me," Aria argued as though she was mildly insulted. "The problem is that he's avoiding everything by being high all the time instead of facing what's in front of him. I realize how hard everything he's dealing with is, I just….I don't know. I wish he was willing to share that with me."

"You wish he would tell you the shit that went on in that hotel room?" Spencer inquired.

"No. Er- Yes. No- no!" She paused for a moment frustrated with herself. "Maybe? I have no clue. I just want to understand it all."

Spencer stared at her silently once again for a long minute, unable to keep from laughing haughtily. "So read a fucking book about it. Or go out and buy drugs and try them yourself. Because if I've figured out anything lately, it's that I wouldn't want to know what it feels like to suffer like that even for a _minute_."

Both girls were silent for a several long minutes, unmoving and seemingly unsure of what to say next. When Aria finally stood to leave the room, Spencer finally spoke again.

"That was really bitchy of me to say," she muttered.

Aria nodded. "It was."

Spencer glared at her lightly, and Aria quickly sighed.

"But you're at least half right," Aria amended. "I just…I don't understand what happened between us, Spence. It's like I woke up one day and the guy I'd been in love with for the past year was gone. I'm not even sure he remembers what happy is."

"Well you obviously still love each other enough to try and make things work even now," Spencer replied. "And that was clearly a good enough place to start. So maybe the things you need to understand are things you need to find within yourself."

Aria's brow furrowed as she looked at her friend. "You sound like a therapist."

"Really?" Spencer asked with a hint of cheerfulness. "I feel like I've earned that observation after all these years of being in therapy for one reason or another."

Aria chuckled. After a long moment, she exhaled a heavy breath and walked over to the desk. Spencer stood and the two girls hugged.

"I'm really sorry, Spence," Aria said sadly. "I just wish things weren't the way they were."

"I'm sure they'll get better in time," Spencer replied.

The two girls parted a moment later, and Aria's door opened. She looked up to see one of her uncles standing in front of her.

"Hey kid," he greeted cheerfully. "Your mom just put breakfast on the table."

"Great," Aria replied with a smile.

The three of them walked out of the room a moment later and headed down the stairs to the kitchen. When they arrived, the rest of Aria's family was already seated around the table. Aria's grandparents were seated off to the left of Ella while her uncle took the seat next to Ella. Aria sat down across from her mother, leaving Spencer to take the chair next to her.

"Is Mike coming around today?" Aria asked as she grabbed a plate stacked with bacon and began to fill her plate.

"He should be around lunch," Ella replied, trading her daughter a moment later for a plate stacked with pancakes.

The morning passed quietly with conversation politely exchanged among all of them. As promised, Mike arrived just before lunch, and he spent the morning in a hearty game of Call of Duty: Black Ops with Aria and Spencer on a brand new Xbox while they waited for one of their uncles, who was running late.

Aria had only stepped away to refill their empy cocoa mugs when the doorbell rang finally.

"I'll get it," she called into the kitchen as she settled the tray of mugs on a table near the door. She walked over to it and opened the door. A smile crossed her face as she saw Ezra standing in front of her.

"Hey," she greeted softly.

"Hey. We're not too late, are we?" He asked.

Aria shook her head, stepping aside. "Come on in. I was just getting more cocoa."

Ezra entered the house, quickly followed by Dianne and Hardy. Aria was about to shut the door when, surprisingly, Wes stepped in the house behind all of them carrying two rather large bags of gifts.

After several minutes, when shoes and coats had been removed, they all made their way into the kitchen. Ella's attention was pulled away from a conversation she'd been having with one of her sister-in-laws, and smiled at them.

"Who's this?" Aria's grandmother asked.

Aria inhaled a deep breath, looking up at Ezra as she slipped an arm around him. "Gran, this is Ezra."

The eldest woman stared at them for several long moments, apparently surveying Ezra for herself for thirty long seconds before she nodded.

"We've heard quite a bit about you," she said. "It's good to meet you."

"Likewise," Ezra said, nodding with a slight smile on his face.

Aria looked behind herself and gestured towards Dianne. "This is his mother, Dianne, and his brother Wes."

"What about blondie back there?" Her grandfather asked. Hardy looked up from the spot he'd been staring at, pointing to himself with a confused expression. "Yeah, I mean you, boy. Who do you belong to?"

Dianne smiled and wrapped a hand around his bicep. "This one belongs to me too."

The adults who were seated, stood and walked over to the four newcomers and greeted them with handshakes and individual introductions while Aria dismissed herself to refill the mugs she'd initially brought down to refill. She grabbed three fresh cups as well for Hardy, Ezra, and Wes, and filled them as well.

When greetings had been officially exchanged, Aria headed back upstairs into Mike's room with the three boys on her flank. She kicked the door lightly as she walked in, breaking up a heated debate between Spencer and Mike, who apparently had somehow cheated.

"I brought company," she said as she walked over. "You got those two other paddles out of their packages yet, Mike?"

Mike looked up and waved at the other men. He'd met them all at one point or another, but knew Hardy the best, so he tossed the unopened boxes at him and – though Spencer was reluctant to let him – ended their heated game so that they could add more players.

Aria passed out the cups of cocoa and then sat down on a beanbag chair next to Ezra, watching as Mike and Wes faced off against Spencer and Hardy for a few moments before she turned her attention to Ezra.

"How was your morning?" She asked.

He shrugged, handing his mug to her so that he could better adjust the beanbag under him. "Lazy. I graded a few papers and then we played video games, just like I said we would. And apparently something happened to the freezer at my mom's place, so all the food she was going to make spoiled. She wasn't into having Chinese food for Christmas, so we figured we'd take you up on your invitation."

"Well I'm glad you did," Aria replied softly as she handed his mug back to him.

"Mike would you stop cheating," Spencer said as she elbowed the youngest man.

"What are you talking about?!" He argued. "Stop throwing grenades!"

"That wasn't her," Hardy laughed.

_.,.  
__Do you break things when you get mad  
__Eat a box of chocolates because you're feeling bad  
__.,._

After dinner, the large group gathered into the sitting room to exchange gifts. As Aria sunk down onto the arm of the couch next to Ezra, she couldn't help but think back to the night she'd found her mother talking to him, and thought he was cheating on her. It had barely been three months, but she felt like a lifetime had passed since then.

Her attention was pulled out of her memory as one of her uncles called her name and proceeded to pass her gift from her grandparents. She tore off the wrapping paper and tossed it to the middle of the room where another of her uncles was holding a bag intended for the wrapping paper. Upon removing the cover to the box to reveal a key. Aria lifted it up in confusion and looked at her grandmother.

"What is this?"

Ella reached over and took the key from Aria's hand, looking at it for a moment before she looked over at her parents. "The key to the summer home in The Hamptons? Seriously?"

Aria could see from the look on her face that her mother wasn't exactly pleased at the gift.

"It's not an outright exchange of property," her grandmother quickly explained. "But she'll be graduating soon, and we extended the same right to you and your siblings growing up."

Ella seemed to calm at least slightly, and Aria looked over at her grandmother.

"I'm confused. What's it for?" Aria asked.

"When your mother was a senior in high school, we gifted her with the key to the home for spring break, with the agreement that she wouldn't do anything illegal or get herself into any kind of trouble. If things go well and you abide by the same rules – and you decide to do so – the home is open to you for use this summer." Her grandmother said.

Aria looked back over at Ella, and though she didn't look as angry as she had before, the expression on her face told Aria that the conversation wasn't necessarily over. Even so, her uncle began handing out more gifts, effectively dismissing the conversation at least for the moment.

After she had gained a generous stack of new clothes, makeup products, and various other accessories (along with a generous endowment from several family members), the last of the gifts were given out. Spencer received one from her while she and Ezra finally exchanged gifts. She had given him a collage of photos she had taken the previous summer, all forming into a picture that said "Live & Love". He had gotten her what was very clearly an expensive vintage camera with a note attached to the front of it that requested she always remember her true passions.

After the last of the gifts had been opened, everyone began to gather up their things and then headed out, one by one, until the only visiting family members who remained were her grandparents.

Aria carried her things up to her room with Spencer's help, and then returned back downstairs where they joined the boys to watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas. She dozed off about half an hour into the movie, only to wake when she heard the front door close.

She lifted her head up from the arm of the couch and looked around the room curiously.

"Mom?" She called out. No reply came.

Weary, she pushed herself up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. A note sat on the table, apparently waiting for her. She picked it up.

_Aria,  
__Took Gran & Grampa back to their hotel.  
__Spencer went home. You can spend the  
__night with her if you want to. Might be back  
__late __–__ Uncle Marshall wants to meet up__for a bit.  
Mike is hanging at the hotel with  
__your cousins. Call if you need anything!  
__Xox, mom._

_P.S. - Gran and I talked. You can use the  
__key as long as you follow the rules and  
__stay out of trouble!_

Aria exhaled a sigh as she returned the letter to the table. She looked around the room curiously for a moment before a thought occurred to her. She walked over to the fridge to retrieve her car keys before she walked back through the house to the doorway. She slipped her feet into her winter boots and then pulled her turquoise winter jacket on before pulling a beanie out of the pocket and slipping it onto her head. She turned and exited the house a moment later, locking up behind herself.

Her feet crunched through the snow as she crossed through the walkway to the driveway. She reached her car a moment later and got into it. She started it before reaching for the left pocket of her jeans. She patted it for a moment before finding her phone. She pulled it out and scrolled through her contacts before pulling up a number. She tapped on it and sent a quick message before settling her phone on her leg and pulling her seatbelt on. She put the car into reverse and pulled out of the driveway. As she pulled onto the road her phone buzzed once more. She pulled over to the side of it in front of her house and put the car in park before picking up her phone and sending a text back. After several long minutes of waiting for a reply, one came through. She stared down at the screen for a long period of seconds. When she was sure of what she was doing, she tucked her phone into her coat pocket and put her car into drive before pulling away from the curb.

She drove into the city, leaving only the car heater to allow sound to fill the car, and kept her focus on her current destination.

Twenty minutes later, she stopped her car and turned it off before getting out. She looked around nervously, tucking her hands tightly into her pockets. The street was relatively deserted, leaving her standing there alone. She inhaled a deep breath of the cold air and gulped as she looked around herself. After a few moments, she reached her hands up to her hair and fussed with it for a few moments before pulling her beanie down tighter. She walked over to the sidewalk and walked down the street until she reached an alley way. She walked past it, glancing up nervously. Only when she had passed it did she suddenly stop, turning her head as if someone had called her name.

She turned around a few moments later and walked into the alley. It was too dark to see much, but after walking a few feet, she spotted someone standing midway down the alley.

"Are you Damien?" She asked softly, her voice trembling. It was all a part of the charade.

"Who wants to know?" He responded.

"M-my boyfriend usually does the deal…But I…" Her voice trailed off. She was probably doing a terrible impression of what she needed to be. "Cal told me I could find you here."

The guy stepped forward, and the little bit of light that reached down the alley shone on part of his face. He didn't look as scary as Aria expected him to be. He barely looked of age, and he hardly looked like someone who belonged dealing drugs.

"What's your flavour?" He asked

Before she could let her thoughts get carried away, she reached into her pocket and pulled out thirty dollars. "Coke. Whatever this will get me."

He took her money a moment later and in the same movement, exchanged it with three small bags of white powder. Aria stared down at it for a few moments as they stood there, but he said nothing else. When she was sure there was nothing else to be said, she turned and walked back to the end of the alley, walking back in the direction of her car. She had no idea what she was actually going to do with what she'd just bought, but she couldn't help wondering how it had been so easy to do what she had just done and just walk away. Seeing the world from this view made her see Ezra in yet another completely different light.


End file.
